Hydro ganja from Bangkok latest craze among youth in India

Hydro ganja from Bangkok latest craze among youth in India

Mangalore Today News Network

By Dr G Shreekumar Menon

Mangaluru, October 9, 2024: In the first week of October 2024, Kodagu Police in Karnataka busted an international drug trafficking operation and arrested seven people. Police seized 3kg of Hydro Ganja, valued at approximately Rupees three crores. Kochi airport also witnessed a seizure by Customs, when they arrested a Thiruvananthapuram native with hydro Ganja. The ganja was concealed along with food products. Around 4.23 kg of ganja worth over Rs 2.5 crore was recovered from his baggage.

In July 2024, the Goa police arrested a Russian DJ for running a narcotics production lab where he grew hydroponic marijuana plants and then sold them via Telegram channels, primarily to other Russians. The police have also seized 1.7 kg of hydroponic marijuana worth around ₹85 lakhs and around 300 gm of hydroponic marijuana powder, valued at around ₹18 lakhs.

Hydroponics is a cultivation method that uses sand, gravel, or, most commonly, water, with added nutrients, rather than soil.  Liquid nutrients are added directly to growing media such as coco coir (coconut husk fibres), clay pebbles, or another lightweight, expandable aggregate to replace soil. Hydroponic cannabis gardens are considered more efficient than traditional soil-based gardens, as the open-root system allows for direct uptake of nutrients and oxygen.

 Hydroponic weed, or hydro weed, is cannabis grown using a hydroponic method. Typically, hydroponic weed is grown indoors in a fully controlled environment. This method gives cannabis farmers complete control over the plants’ environment, which can produce more reliable crops, more consistent buds, and faster harvest cycles.

The debate on whether hydroponic cannabis is more potent than soil-grown cannabis has been raging for quite some time. While both methods can produce high-quality cannabis, there are some key differences in the way the plants are grown that can impact potency. In hydroponic growing, nutrients are precisely controlled, and the plants receive a consistent supply of all the nutrients they need. This can lead to faster growth, higher yields, and potentially higher THC content in the buds. On the other hand, in soil-based growing, the nutrients available to the plants are dependent on the natural properties of the soil and the nutrients that are added. This can lead to a more diverse cannabinoid profile. Some studies have shown that hydroponic cannabis has higher THC levels, while others have shown no significant difference in potency between the two methods. But, hydroponically grown plants typically grow faster than soil grown plants.

According to a UN report, hydroponic weed is grown globally with major producers based in the USA, Canada, Netherlands and Australia. Thailand has historically been associated with high-quality cannabis, particularly the renowned Thai Stick variety. These sticks hold immense cultural significance, often associated with rituals and traditions. Hill tribes in Thailand invented Thai sticks to enhance the marijuana experience, and they became popular among American GIs during the Vietnam War. Thai sticks are made by combining buds, hash oil, and resin on a bamboo skewer. The sticks are then cured to remove moisture and improve flavour, allowing the cannabinoids and terpenes to emerge. They’re wrapped with hemp string and cannabis fan leaves, providing a unique smoking experience.

The strain “Thai Stick,” is grown by the hill tribes in northeast Thailand. The hill tribes of Thailand generally use silk line to hold “Thai buds” together around either bamboo sticks or hemp stalks. The term Thai stick also known as the Buddha stick, is crafted by a unique method of making a sativa blunt by skewering seedless cannabis buds on a stem then further wrapping it with threads of marijuana. After this, the blunt is then dipped in cannabis oil to increase the potency boost. In the book ‘Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade’, Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter explain how surfers who were declared “Draft Dodgers,” were moving shipments of Thai sticks from farms in northeast Thailand to America. Thai sticks first gained massive popularity in the late ’60s and early ’70s, initially being smuggled into the United States of America by Vietnam War veterans. Thailand has legalized medical marijuana and recreational cannabis use is projected to be a huge revenue earner.

India has emerged as a major consumer of Thai Sticks which has a huge market in New Delhi. From Thailand, large quantities are sent to India’s North East border, passing through Manipur and Dimapur. Several supply chains and syndicates, transport it to New Delhi by train, bus, private vehicles and private delivery apps and services. They also exploit social media for traffickers and clients, to communicate and conclude sale transactions. Syndicates have adapted, using couriers, parcels, and postal services to smuggle and deliver drugs, and is directly linked to the growth in dark web clandestine activity in India. The quantity of drugs in parcels is limited to a few grams to avoid suspicion and interception by law enforcement agencies. 100 bundles of Thai sticks weigh about 3½ kilos and packed in plastic, for ease of handling by smugglers.

In July 2024, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)’s Mumbai Zonal Unit detected a case of smuggling, by a youth, of hydroponic weed worth around ₹5 crores from Thailand, in exchange for ₹20,000 and an all-expenses-paid sightseeing trip to that country. The contraband, weighing 5.35 kg, was hidden inside nine vacuum-packed silver-coloured packets, each bearing the name of a different fruit. Hydroponic weed is reported to be 50 times more potent than regular cannabis and seriously impairs users’ health.

The growing popularity of Thai Sticks, is going to add to the woes of enforcement agencies, as well as those guarding the sensitive North-East borders.

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Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics)

Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com