Thoughts from the void: Personal Ganja Consumption Review 2018

Continuing the review of personal annual ganja consumption which I have undertaken for the year 2017, here is the review for 2018.

2018 in terms of ganja consumption for me has been one of the lowest in recent times, possibly the lowest in the last 12 years. In the context of rising global legalization and consumption, my personal case has been ironically the opposite.

I had access to about 30 grams of bud and leaf around early January 2018. This was good quality, organic herb harvested at the beginning of the year which is the best time for the plant in south India. It was a variety grown locally possibly in Karnataka and had great aroma and flavor. I relished it but rationed it to try and prolong the experience. It lasted for about 40 days till about mid February. I smoke approx 2-3 joints of 1/3rd the normal potency a day, which may have amounted to roughly 3/4th of a gram per day. I smoked the ganja mixed with some imported loose tobacco which some good friends had been kind enough to share with me. The joints were roughly in the proportion of 1/3rd ganja and 2/3rd tobacco rolled into a spliff using some slow burning cigarette paper which is my preferred mode of consumption. The smoking experience was great and I loved the natural high and sense of well being that the smokes gave me.

The next time I got access to some ganja was in the end of March after nearly a month and a half of not consuming the herb. This time it was in the form of some nice hash resin. I got approx 10g of the resin which seemed to be of sufficiently good quality to make me think that it must be from the Himachal region. This also I rationed and smoked for approximately 40 days in the same fashion, ratio and frequency as I had the buds and leaves earlier i.e. 2-3 joints a day of 1/3rd the normal potency of a single joint. The hash was of good enough plasticity to mix with the tobacco and smoke. It was also of sufficiently good quality that a small amount of resin roughly the size of the head of a match stick rolled with tobacco gave a sublime experience so that I was able to stretch my supply for approx. 40 days till the first week of May.

Going by the above two experiences, if I thought that 2018 was going to be a good year, I was quite disappointed because for pretty much the rest of the year I had no further access to the herb. On a couple of occasions towards the end of the year some noble friends did share a smoke with me but there was not enough to stock up or keep aside, just enough for the get together.

The situation still continues into 2019 so I have been without access to ganja for roughly 8 months now. When I ran out of the herb, I started rolling a cigarette with the loose tobacco and smoking approximately a cigarette a day for the subsequent 8 months. When I ran out of the loose tobacco, I bought the occasional bundle of beedis or, on a couple of rare occasions, a packet of cigarettes keeping the consumption to roughly a cigarette a day or a couple of beedis a day.

Alcohol consumption through the year has been similar to previous years. I have confined myself to mainly social drinking and kept the frequency of alcohol consumption to approx 2-3 drinks once a fortnight.

What I hear from people I talk to, and material I read, is that the consumption of ganja is at an all time high both in the city I live in as well as more or less everywhere else. Yet people I talk to repeatedly speak about the difficulty of accessing the herb, low quality of herb, the high levels of police crackdown on cultivators and dealers as well as the increasing cost of the herb. This seems to indicate the formation of well organized illegal groups of larger operators that possibly crowd out the smaller producers and sellers. Also the buyers who have established steady long term relationships are likely to have more regular access as it must be in the case of middle age and older adult buyers. The youth are still able to network and source from sellers that operate for short periods of time before moving on or running into law enforcement.

So, in summary, 2018 was a year that reinforced my convictions that ganja needs to be legalized and made more accessible, especially for middle age and older adults in Bengaluru. It also appears that in 2018 the illegal networks are ramping up their operations in anticipation of the inevitable legalization, making a quick buck and in the process building the necessary knowledge, supply, distribution and consumption networks that will surely stand in good stead when legalization becomes a reality in Bengaluru.

For me though, for the time being, it is watch, wait and speak mode.

Related articles

Draft Cannabis Policy for India 2019

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/03/draft-cannabis-policy-for-india-2019.html

Three arguments against cannabis prohibition
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/three-arguments-against-marijuana.html

Cannabis legalization - Will Bengaluru be the second Indian city to legalize?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/marijuana-legalization.html

Thoughts on draft legal cannabis policy for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/thoughts-on-draft-legal-marijuana-policy.html

Ganja Economics for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/ganja-economics-for-india.html

Thoughts from the void

Pages

Top Three Popular Posts

Monday, 14 January 2019

Personal Ganja Consumption Review 2018

No comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Total Pageviews

Report Abuse