Adilabad: Is ganja addiction posing a threat to the security of women and girls across the state, where harassment cases are on the rise?
As things stand, it is a ‘yes’ and if things are not contained by way of tightening screws against cultivation and sale of the banned substance, the State will be staring at a major avoidable problem.
It is being widely presumed that ganja addicts under its influence are increasingly targeting hapless women and young girls. Ganja cultivation is high in tribal areas and Adilabad has become a transit point for transportation to north India. Many middle-aged daily wage labourers pack the substance in sachets and gradually send it to the sellers. This is most prevalent in Jainoor mandal of Kumarambheem Asifabad district.
Ganja cultivation is gradually increasing with many farmers taking it up as that makes for handsome profit despite low investments.
Ganja cultivation is increasing in villages located on the State borders as it is easy to shift the yield to Maharashtra. There is an alarming increase in the number of ganja addicts in Mancherial district and under Ramag-undam and Karimnagar police commissionerates.
It is surprising that police and excise department officials are finding ganja cultivation in many interior areas and destroying the crop.
According to Adilabad police, a total of 11 cases have been registered, 159 kg dry ganja seized and 30 persons are arrested in 2019 in Adilabad district alone.
Police and excise officials found it being raised as inter-crop in large tracts on the outskirts of Morkhandi and Indiranagar villages in Bajarhathnoor mandal and burnt nearly 1,000 ganja plants in Adilabad district.
It is found that college students and men are getting addicted to ganja and there has been an alarming increase in the last five years, especially in North Telangana.
The recent seizure of huge cakes of dry ganja while they were being transported to north India is an indication of its demand up north, where it sells for exorbitant amounts. The dangerous trend is that ganja sellers are targeting youth and college students and those residing in slums.
