Man asks court to allow chars usage: Karachi
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday dismissed a petition filed by a citizen seeking the decriminalization of carrying up to 10 grams of hashish (chars) on the person.
“What kind of a petition have you brought to the court?” Sindh High Court’s Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar said in indignation as petitioner Ghulam Asghar Saeein brought forth his arguments. “Do you want everyone to start smoking chars?”
However, the petitioner responded by saying that he was just a “poor man” who had filed the petition in the “public interest”.
“Smoking hash allowed in multiple countries,” the petitioner told the court.
“If you want to smoke hash then go to those countries. Its not allowed here” responded Justice Mazhar. He also asked why such petitions brought to the court.
“It will increase the country’s income and revenue,” the petitioner said at the judge’s questioning.
“[We] do not want such revenue, there are legitimate ways to increase income,” responded the judge before dismissing the plea.
Charas is the name given to a hashish form of cannabis which is handmade in the Indian subcontinent and Jamaica. Its a cannabis concentrate made from the resin of the cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa or Cannabis indica). The plant grows wild throughout Northern India along the stretch of the Himalayas (its putative origin) and is an important cash crop for the local people. The difference between charas and hashish is that hashish made from a dead cannabis plant and charas made from a live one.
Charas can smoke mixed with cigarette tobacco and rolled back into the cigarette blank. Rolling paper also used to smoke charas. Charas with tobacco mixture filled into the rolling paper to make a joint. However, The most traditional and popular ways of smoking Charas is in chillums. A clay pipe usually made by Indian and Italian artists due to Charas’s extremely popular among Italian travelers since the 1960s to the Charas regions as well as significant amounts of the Charas production that exported to Italy.
