NCJ Number
140463
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 66 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-March 1993) Pages: 76-86
Date Published
1993
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Drug trafficking in the Punjab, India involves mainly cocaine, opium, and hashish.
Abstract
Sailors have initiated dissolute individuals in port cities into cocaine use. As a result, Indian and Chinese wholesale dealers have settled in Calcutta and other ports, smuggling drugs from German and Japanese sources, and supplying drugs to the provinces. The drugs are concealed in objects, such as in the lining of furniture, and with medicinal drugs. Drugs are smuggled by means of the mail or by carriers on trains. Through these and other strategies, the smugglers evade the excise and police officers. Opium pills are eaten as a household remedy, particularly by the Sikhs, to serve as a mild stimulant, to prevent malaria, to relieve pain, and to treat various ailments. The cultivation of the poppy plant and the production of opium are under government control in British India, and both have been continuously reduced in recent years. Demand and high prices in neighboring provinces has led to much smuggling from the Punjab, generally at night. Hashish is used only by males, initially causing slothfulness and later producing a special form of mania peculiar to India. Most hashish is imported as a paste from Yarkand; the rising import duties has led to a major contraband trade. The government's Excise Department actively combats the drug smuggling which resultes in many arrests and drug seizures. Footnote