Someone Tried to Smuggle Weed from US to India in Sleeping Bags, Caught After ‘Strong Smell’

Unlike parts of USA and France where alcohol and weed have been put under essentials in the coronavirus lockdown, people in India are running dry on their supplies of liquor and weed.

But people seem to have found their way around the shortage of supplies, Recently, an unidentified drug smuggler sneaked some cannabis from the US to India in a sleeping bag, the Vice reported. Over a kilogram of the cannabis worth Rs 9 lakh was dispatched to India in a parcel containing two sleeping bags and boxes of vacuum cleaners via international postal service.

But the foolproof plan was deflated and exposed at Chennai’s Foreign Postal Office and Courier Terminal when the staff was alerted by a whiff of ‘strong weedy’ smell from the parcel. The cannabis was seized under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The authorities believe that it was sent from Washington where weed is legal. However, the person to whom the parcel was addressed to in India has come under scanner.

In US, cannabis usage reached the highest ever in mid-March as worried stoners bought large consignments to stock up for rainy days. A survey conducted by Cowen & Co in March with 2,500 respondents found that 33 percent had tried cannabis at some point in life. This is a record "high" for the US. As per the report, adult-use cannabis sales increased by 64 percent by the end of the second week of March.

A report in Associated Press from ten days later cited that demand for legal cannabis and related products had increased two-fold and California and by 50 percent in Washington, as per data in the cannabis industry tracker Headset.

Shares of cannabis dispensaries also gained value as several parts of the United States went into complete lockdown.