The word "psychotropic" means that this Act was drafted by a "psycho" from the "tropics" - which is surely one of those crazed Mallu cops who goes about burning ganja fields in Idikki, for that is how they treat God's Own Ganja in Karl Marx's Own Country.
Ganja is a "mild euphoric" - not a narcotic. Euphoric means "that which causes happiness." We Hindus believe this happiness is a gift to All Mankind from the greatest of all our gods - and we have so many gods that we have lost count. This god is The Lord Shiva - Mahadev - affectionately known as Bholey Shankar. And so all us Bholay ke Bhagats, when we smoke His divine gift - cannabliss - sing His praise thus:
Jai Bholay Shankar
Dushman ko thang kar
Duniya tere Lunn par
This "Lunn" is His Mighty Phallus - worshipped throughout the land - and the picture below is of His Ice Lingam in Amarnath.
The word "narcotic" is also from a god: Narcos, the Greek God of Sleep. It refers only to opium and its derivatives - and opium was well known to Hippocrates himself.
In the same vein, the word "morphine" comes from a god as well: Narcos' son Morpheus, the Greek God of Dreams.
"The sleep - perchance to dream."
Opium is the best pain-killer known to man. It not only numbs the sensation of pain, it also modifies our perception of pain.
Which is surely why our Rajputs continue to consume it ceremonially - because Rajputs are warriors, and if you go into battle with some opium inside you, then it matters little if you lose an arm or a leg, for you go on fighting valiantly. It is a "warrior's drug."
Morphine, invented around WW2, was known as the "soldier's drug." Allied soldiers carried syringes filled with morphine into battle - just in case.
Behind all the fuck-ups for the opium poppy is another of those UN organisations: the United Nations Drug Control Programme. I read one of their annual reports once - and there was a lot in it about the impossibility of checking "precursor chemicals" used to make synthetics out of the pure stuff. I also read a "case study" on one of our poor rickshaw-wallahs who used to smoke ganja - but the study was not at all sympathetic to his plight. Methinks these supranational tax-parasites prefer that our hard-working poor people destroy their health with cheap booze.
The UN and the USSA "lobbied" for the passage of the NDPS Act of 1984. The "War on Drugs." This is how our "sovereign" Parliament agreed to becoming a Bholay ka Dushman. Treason, I say.
For I am a Bholay ka Param Bhakt. And there are many like me. Many, many. "And I hope someday you'll join us..."
Many countries have got fucked as a result of the UN-US War on Opium. Large swathes of Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia are out of the control of their governments. They call this region the "Golden Triangle" - probably because these brave and smart people trade their opium for gold and not paper. However, they live in "primitive" conditions - despite all their gold. If they could openly trade, they would be happy to exchange their gold for all the rest of the world has to offer. Opium is "medicine." And the good people of the Golden Triangle would enjoy lots of "retail therapy" if freedom prevailed. Then the whole world would prosper. Global aggregate demand would rise - and this is another implication of Say's Law of Markets, for only when one can sell one's stuff can one buy that of others. Demand is NOT increased by printing paper currencies. The Keynesians HATE Say's Law. To know more about this vital Law, do read all the posts under this label.
Apart from the Golden Traingle, there is Afghanistan - and parts of Pakistan as well. And the same story applies. Not only to opium - but also to charas. Say's Law applies equally here. Capitalism is Peace and Trade.
In India, "licensed" opium farming is carried out in UP, MP and Rajasthan. And, of course, there is a huge "illicit trade."
Not only are traditional opium farmers fucked by the narco cops - but innumerable unfortunates who suffer painful conditions like terminal cancer get fucked as well. I was told of an oncologist who advised all his terminal cancer patients to buy 3 kilos of pure opium FIRST. I was also told that such a quantity of the prescribed quality is almost impossible to come by.
The State is a "pain-increaser."
As though their taxation and inflationism are not painful enough.
Morphine is prescribed after many surgeries - but, as a doctor told me, it is very difficult to come by. Only one chemist sells it in Delhi. And his stocks are never enough. Further, THREE PRESCRIPTIONS are required - the great "triplicate procedures" of baboos, as with passports, visas, and everything else. Even worse, the hospital that administers the morphine has to carefully store the empty vial for the "verification" of the "authorities." This authority comes from Parliament, of course.
Legislation and Bureaucracy go together.
Now, pure opium used to be freely sold in many parts of India till the NDPS Act of 1984. I myself bought some in a Bengal village once, legally, sometime in the late 70s. I ate it - and went straight into the arms of Narcos. Deep sleep. But Morpheus did not arrive - no dreams - so I never ate the stuff again.
But many do.
Particularly in the Punjab.
I once met a Punjabi girl who insisted opium must be legal because, she said, "My grandfather was an opium eater - and he was a very nice man."
But opium eating does cause some digestive problems. It reduces the respiratory rate. And it has "high tolerance" as well. This is particularly dangerous when its derivatives like heroin and morphine are used - and the last trip is inevitably a fatal dose. OD. Methadone is used to cure heroin and morphine addiction.
When I was in my teens, opium was cheaper than charas - and it was often mixed with it by cheats. We had to be very careful when buying charas.
Today, pure opium is nowhere to be found - but you get the horrible adulterated "smack." It is everywhere. All over Delhi, at least. And smack costs a bomb!
There are also many other instances of "opium abuse" - there are painkillers available from chemists, there are sleeping pills with opiates in them, and there are codeine-laden cough syrups also.
As with smack, these are horrible and dangerous. And all this opium abuse is rife. Particularly in Manipur - a war-torn province whose ganja is reputed to be excellent. Heroin, codeine, and smack - these are causing havoc among Manipuri youth, who are "abusing" them. Why is no one encouraging them to smoke their excellent ganja?
Pure opium - eaten - is the "traditional use" in India.
The East India Company had a separate "Opium Service" - and they even fought the "Opium Wars" with China to sell the stuff there. There are still old, disused opium warehouses to be found in Bombay.
That was John Bull Capitalism.
I met a Chinese guy in Pondicherry recently - and we got talking about the freedom to get high. He expressed grave doubts about opium - because it apparently "destroyed" his people. But they smoked opium in China. As did Coleridge.
"But you Chinese are now smoking lots of tobacco," I retorted. Adding, "Deng himself smoked 90 cigarettes a day."
"Wouldn't ganja be much better?" I asked.
He nodded vigorously.
Now, I wonder why the EIC didn't think of that?
A New John Bull Capitalism, anyone?
Like - the "Ganja Wars."
Bholay ki fauj karegi mauj
So, imagine a latter-day Commodore Perry sailing into Edo Harbour and saying, "Open up for the Bhola Company - or else." The Japs, like the Chinese, smoke too many cigarettes.
And another armada doing the same at Hong Kong harbour - an island that the opium wars won for the Brits.
What about SINGAPORE - where they HANG those who love Bhola?
HOLY WAR!
I do not imagine it will be necessary to do the same at New York Harbour, where the Statue of Liberty stands - because I do sincerely believe that by then the "Tea Party Movement" would have converted itself into a "Ganja Party Movement," and Ron Paul would have been elected President of the USSA, the USSA would have once again become America - "the land of the brave and the free" - so all their unwinnable and completely stoopid foreign wars would be immediately ended, and then, finally, as Lennon imagined, "the world will be a new one."
IMAGINE!
