Tag: Marijuana

  • Man arrested for growing marijuana at home in DHA

    Man arrested for growing marijuana at home in DHA

    A man has been arrested for growing and selling marijuana at a rented home in Defence Housing Authority, Karachi.

    Express Tribune reported on the snap check case.

    The suspect is a Canadian-Pakistani, identified as Sarfaraz Ahmed Khan. The man had created a controlled environment using air-conditioners to adjust temperature and moisture as required for the growth of the plant. He would then sell it.

    Credits: The Express Tribune
    Credits: The Express Tribune

    According to Excise and Taxation and Narcotics Control Department Secretary Atifur Rehman, the value of the seized cannabis plants is worth about Rs 15 million.

    He said that excise officials caught Sarfaraz during snap checking on Sunday. They recovered liquor and cannabis from his car and detained him for interrogation.

    Credits: The Express Tribune

    E&T team then raided his house where they discovered an indoor nursery of cannabis plants.

    Apart from air-conditioners, oxygen cylinders and concentrators were also used alongside LED lights for light control.

    Seed, fertilisers, and soil had been imported.

    Credits: The Express Tribune

    Excise secretary claims that the chances are that cannabis factories are functioning in other parts of the city as well.

    Sarfaraz has been produced before a magistrate to acquire a seven-day physical remand for interrogation.

  • ANF confiscates more than one tonne of drugs during an operation in Islamabad

    ANF confiscates more than one tonne of drugs during an operation in Islamabad

    During an operation on Sunday, the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) was able to recover more than a tonne of drugs and take two suspects into custody.

    According to a spokesman for the ANF headquarters, the ANF carried out a raid in the Islamabad area after receiving a tip, seizing nearly one tonne of drugs, including 1,020 kg of hash and 28.8 kg of heroin, as well as two members of an inter-provincial drug smuggling ring.

    The refrigerated container contained medicines that were being transported out of Balochistan. After filing a case against the accused, ANF began a new investigation to find other gang members, he continued.

    In other news, the Airports Security Force (ASF) recovered 7 kg of heroin on Sunday as a result of two separate raids at the airports in Lahore and Karachi.

    Asif Ali, a passenger travelling from Lahore to Bangkok, had 5.12 kg of heroin hidden in his hand luggage, according to Anti Narcotic Force (ANF) officers. The accused had expertly concealed the heroin in his hand luggage.

    In the second operation, which was carried out at the Karachi Airport, 1.47 kg of heroin was found in Ahmed Sher’s suitcase, who was travelling from Karachi to Medina.

    While ASF representatives said that the accused had been given to ANF for additional legal proceedings, including drug charges.

  • Anti-Narcotics Force recovers ice-infused bed sheets, 102 kg drugs

    Anti-Narcotics Force recovers ice-infused bed sheets, 102 kg drugs

    The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) seized ice drug-infused bed sheets that were being smuggled to Australia during a raid at a courier service office in Lahore. Muhammad Asad, a Muzaffarabad resident, placed the order for the package.

    Along with detaining one accused person, ANF was able to recover over 102 kg of drugs in two other operations.

    ANF Intelligence carried out a raid on GT Road in Akora Khattak, according to a spokesman for the ANF Headquarters, and confiscated 102 kg of drugs, including 84 kg of hashish and 18 kg of opium, from a truck’s hidden compartments.

    A suspect named Zaib Gul, resident of Mansehra, was also detained by the ANF. The accused’s accomplices would also face imprisonment, according to ANF official.

    The suspects have been charged in separate cases, and additional inquiries are being conducted.

    in the wake of rising drug cases, the ANF has been quite active in recent months, carrying out several operations around the nation and making it nearly impossible to smuggle drugs.

  • Karachi man requests court to legalise hashish in public interest

    Karachi man requests court to legalise hashish in public interest

    A man has approached the Sindh High Court, asking it to decriminalise carrying and smoking small quantities of hashish in the public interest.

    The petitioner had requested the court that people be allowed to carry 10 grammes of hashish (chars) on their person. “What kind of a petition have you brought? Do you want everyone to start smoking chars?” responded Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, visibly perturbed by the plea.

    At this, petitioner Ghulam Asghar Saeein informed the bench that several countries in the world have decriminalised hash.

    “If you want to smoke hash then go to those countries, it is not allowed here,” responded Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, as he dismissed the petition.

    “It will increase the country’s income and revenue,” said the petitioner at the judge’s questioning. “We do not want such money, as there are legitimate ways to increase income,” responded the judge.

    Many Pakistanis are surprisingly open to using cannabis, with the spongy, black hash made from marijuana grown in the country’s tribal belt and neighbouring Afghanistan the preferred variant of the drug, said AFP news agency in a feature on the use of hashish in Pakistan in 2017.

    Whereas alcohol is explicitly forbidden in Islamic scripture, hash seemingly straddles a theological gray zone, which could explain its popularity in the country.

    Even if most observant Muslims in Pakistan scoff at the idea of drinking, a prod into their feelings on marijuana often triggers a wry smile followed by a trite maxim about how good it makes food taste or how restful sleep can be after a toke.

    People have been smoking hash on the subcontinent for centuries.
    It predates the arrival of Islam in the region, with reference to cannabis appearing in the sacred Hindu Atharva Veda text describing its medicinal and ritual uses.

    According to a 2013 UN survey, cannabis was the most widely consumed drug in Pakistan with around four million users, representing 3.6 per cent of the population – a figure that has drawn scepticism in a country where reliable data can be hard to come by.

  • Federal cabinet approves first-ever licence for cannabis use; seized drugs to no longer be destroyed

    Federal cabinet approves first-ever licence for cannabis use; seized drugs to no longer be destroyed

    In what has been termed a “landmark decision” by Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry, the federal cabinet has approved the first-ever licence for the Science & Tech Ministry and Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to use hemp — cannabis plant — for industrial and medical purposes.

    After the approval, confiscated drugs will no longer be destroyed and instead be used to make medicines, reports said.

    The development was confirmed by Fawad, who took to Twitter and wrote:

    The federal cabinet’s decision comes months after it was reported that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan wanted the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) to stop burning charas [hashish form of cannabis] and other seized drugs, and instead set up a factory where they can be utilised to make medicines.

    In a video doing rounds over the internet in February, Narcotics Control Minister Shehryar Afridi could be heard as saying that his department was working to set up a factory on the premier’s orders. This factory would manufacture medicines solely from seized drugs, thousands of kilogrammes of which are set ablaze every year at a drug-burning ceremony held by the ANF.

    “We are setting up a factory… we burn a huge cache of heroin, charas and afeem [opium] every year, but other countries use them to make medicines. Now, on PM Imran Khan’s instructions, a factory will be established in Tirah [Valley] so that lives of locals can be improved,” he had said.

    According to research conducted by many reliable sources over the years, cannabis, marijuana or hashish has long been known to provide pain relief from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, nausea, and can also minimise some symptoms of glaucoma and Crohn’s disease.

    Similarly, a study at Hannover Medical School found that opiate addicts — usually people addicted to painkillers like Vicodin, Percocet, Oxycontin, or Demerol — were able to better kick their opiate addiction after taking small dosages of heroin.

  • Indian family lands in hospital after confusing methi leaves with marijuana

    A family from Uttar Pradesh, India ended up in a hospital after confusing marijuana leaves with methi and mistakenly making a ‘ganja sabzi’ out of it. 

    A local vegetable seller, Naval Kishore sold a packet full of weed claiming that it was methi to a villager’s son, Nitesh as a prank. 

    Nitesh gave the packet of weed to his sister-in-law to cook it. According to reports, the family of six unknowingly ate the cooked marijuana leaves.

    Minutes after they ate their food, the family started feeling uncomfortable and asked their neighbours to call a doctor. While their neighbours were calling a doctor, the entire family fainted. 

    The neighbours immediately called the police after which the family was hospitalized. The police cracked the mystery after they found a cooking pot with the leftover food next to an uncooked pack of weed. 

    The cooked marijuana and raw leaves were detained and the police went on to investigate the vegetable vendor for his irresponsible act.

    The police has caught the vegetable vendor for putting so many lives at risk. Authorities further confirmed that a case will be registered after a formal complaint is filed.