Thirty-year-old Arjun Bal (name changed) takes a drag and stares out of the window in his production studio in suburban Mumbai while he reminisces about the ‘good ol’ days’ when quality hashish was cheap and the world was a lot more mellow. Hashish ‘aficionados’ like Bal, across metro cities, now bemoan the poor quality of hash in supply and the fact that the drug is practically unaffordable.Today, in Mumbai, an average consumer is likely to cough up anywhere between Rs 4,000-7,000 for 10 grams of hash. As late as 2010, the same amount would have cost just about Rs 1,600-2,000. But the golden age of affordable hash in India was the late 1990s, when 10 grams of Malana Cream (A-grade hashish) from Himachal Pradesh was available for Rs 500 and a lower grade variety known as Junglee, was often thrown in for free.So, what changed since 2010? For one, demand has shot up with urban youth puffing up like never before. As the demand spirals, life in the place where the drug is grown and processed has changed. When one enters the village Malana in the hilly, lush region of Himachal Pradesh, it isn’t surprising to walk past a rickety shed with young children glued to a Playstation, overdosing on Grand Theft Auto (GTA). Just one example of how foreign and domestic travellers with their smartphones, laptops and video games have impacted lives in these far-flung villages.Amlan Datta, director of the awardwinning documentary Bom that features the community of Malana, attributes the quality degradation and price rise of hashish to the local mafia and the legal authorities. “Price escalation is because of the risk involved as well as the network cost, there is a commission that goes to the police and local politicians,” says Datta,“As mucg as 60-70% of the charas is mixed with Nepali hashish and other chemicals to increase the quantity and make more money.”Meanwhile, in a claustrophobic apartment in Bhandup, a distant suburb of Mumbai, three dealers — a college student, an advertising executive and a full-time dealer — point fingers at a growing set of new urban customers who are easy to fleece as the reason for spiralling prices. The authorities themselves don’t consider hashish as a major menace in the city’s narcotics scene, preferring to focus on harder, more lucrative party drugs like mephedrone (popularly referred to as meow-meow), cocaine and heroin.“We usually catch hashish dealers when they’re in transit or when we get a tip-off from an insider in the city,” says Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jayant Naiknavare of the Anti-Narcotic Cell (ANC).“This year we have had 16 cases so far, 18 accused individuals, approximately 22kg of hashish, the street value of which is Rs 26 lakh,” says Naiknavare, adding that most of the hashish seized in the city originated from Nepal and Kashmir.Hash connoisseurs, on the other hand, prefer to go the extra mile to source hashish grown in the valleys of Himachal and Uttarakhand. When Romesh Bhattacharji, former narcotics commissioner in India was walking through the hills of Himachal Pradesh with a few engineering students from Hyderabad, he was stunned by the open illegal trade of hashish. “The students wanted to buy 1 kilo each and then sell it in Hyderabad for at least 300% profit,” says Bhattacharji,“Malana cream is being sold for as high as Rs 7500 for a tola (10 grams); this is a social problem that no one is bothered about because everyone is involved.” According to Bhattacharji, the local authorities are to blame for not curbing the illegal trade that occurs ‘too openly.’ Bhattacharji claims that in recent years he has seen a growing number of young Indian consumers driving up the hills to buy hashish.Long before young Shiva bhakts smoked chillums in the mountains, the consumption of cannabis in India, which dates back to 1000 CE, was free of any restrictions. Mughal kings like Babur and Shah Jahan loved their opium and hashish. In 1961, the United Nation’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs clubbed cannabis with hard drugs. Eventually, the Indian government passed the Narcotic Drugs and Substances Abuse Act in 1985 including the same definition of cannabis in it. However, there was no mention of bhang.“The legalisation of ganja for personal consumption in regulated quantities is not harmful. But hashish can be since it has high THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) content up to 15% in northern parts of India, which is too potent,” says Bhattacharji, “More than 400 out of 650 districts have illicit cannabis cultivation, not possible to stop it, so regulated legalization is a solution but unlikely to happen soon.”Yusuf Merchant, president of the Drug Abuse Information Rehabilitation and Research Centre, claims there are no pros to legalisation other than the potential elimination of corruption. “Hashish is a gateway drug. Access to it opens up doors to other illegal options and long term usage has been associated with brain damage,” says Merchant.To consumers, hypocrisy lies in the fact that on an auspicious day like Holi, one can stagger around the streets in a bhang-induced stupor and yet, jail time is imminent if one rolls a spiff in public on any other day.