The City Beautiful and capital of two States Punjab and Haryana, has turned out to be a paradise for the drug addicts and drug peddlers with ‘Marijuana’ or cannabis plants growing in different pockets of the urban and peripheral areas. The growth of such plants in the wild has raised the concern of not only the health department but also for the law enforcement agencies.
The wild growth of cannabis, which was earlier confined only to the southern sectors, now can be seen in the northern areas too, including in the vicinity of VVIP areas- residences of Ministers of Punjab and IAS or IPSs officers of Punjab and Chandigarh in sector 39. The residential colonies of Government employees residing in water works colonies in sector 39, 37, 12, 32 and 26 of Chandigarh too have these plants. Here too, the extraordinary growth of cannabis plants is enough to attract the drug addicts especially the minors, by giving them an easy access to the narcotic stuff.
On the condition of anonymity, a daily user of Marijuana (Charas), said Chandigarh has become not only a haven for the users but also good for the suppliers, who collect the cannabis leaves and then sell it in the market after packaging it in the polythene bags illegally. He said 10 gram of marijuana (charas) fetches Rs2000 and one can easily procure 5 gm from wild plants within 20 minutes. Doctors also confirm that the high use of cannabis by smoking leaves psychoactive effects including anxiety, panic attacks etc. besides visual illusions, hallucination etc. Its regular use can also increase heart rate and decrease the blood pressure of the consumer besides decreasing his or her memory.
However, both the local administration, including Horticulture department of Chandigarh Administration and Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, which have direct responsibility to tackle the situation due to the wild growth of cannabis are not even ready to talk on it. “This is not a new problem. I have been seeing it for the last three decades”, said Siri Narayan, Assistant land Scaping Officer –I of Horticulture division no 2 in Chandigarh Administration.
He said they are only concerned about the areas near main roads and the rest of the city is directly under the control of Municipal Corporation. “It is their duty to remove this wild growth”, added Narayan. He said the department only has six tractors which too remain occupied all the time.
MCC officials put the onus on the administration saying it converts vacant land in the plan as parks. “The land with wild growth of cannabis belongs to the administration”, said the official spokesperson of the MCC. local police too shrugged off its responsibility. “Cutting of wild growth of cannabis is not our responsibility. It is for the local bodies to act. We only maintain law and order”, said Urvija Goel, ASP of sector 39 area.