GRASS IS AVAILABLE FOR THE ASKING

HYDERABAD: Marijuana -- ganja in common parlance -- has come out of the
closet. No more a clandestine trade, pan and cigarette shops are passe, the
stuff is now openly sold from houses too.

The reason: they have the tacit approval of the local cops, and some
politicians too. In fact, a close relative of a minister too peddles ganja.

To procure it, all one needs is the right contact. Sometimes, even that is
not necessary, if one can bluff with a straight face.

But the drug-peddler knows his customers well. When an addict goes to him
for the `maal', he does not need to ask for it by name. He just hands over
a currency note and indicates that he wants the `round substance'.

When this reporter, posing as an addict, tried the code, the drug-peddler
sitting in his pan-shop near a theatre in Secunderabad was initially
suspicious. "Inthakumundhu eppudaina theesukunnava?" (Have you ever taken
it from me before? he demanded to know after a while. "Poyina nela," (Last
month) I replied. And he handed over a round ball of paste, neatly packed
in a small sealed plastic packet. On it was the marking `Ayurvedic Oushadhi'.

In fact, peddlers introduce ganja to first-timers as `medicine'.
"Kotirogalanivaranaku mandhu," (cure for a crore diseases), says another
peddler, dressed as a sadhu. Take this medicine twice a day, and you will
live for 130 years. "A sadhu at Bolarum who used to take it lived that
long," he explains.

As he reveals how he himself has been addicted to it for the last 24 years,
two of his regular customers come to him and after an invocation, they puff
the substance together. "Take it for free this time. But you'll have to pay
Rs 100 per packet if you come back to me again," the peddler offers.

At a small shop at Bansilalpet, family members running the place have no
qualms filling a cigarette with ganja before giving it to a `new customer'.