Asish Mehta
Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, August 21: Cannabis stuffed in the paper rolls of cigarettes have become quite a rage among college students within Infocity police limits as the intoxicant is being clandestinely sold by miscreants in the area.
Sources familiar with the development said that young students, most of them teenagers under 18, are getting increasingly hooked to cannabis in the form of what they call ‘cigaweeds’ in the popular college slang.
“According to the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COPTA), no person can sell, offer for sale, or permit the sale of cigarettes or any other tobacco products to any person who is under 18 years of age, and within 100 yards of any educational institution,” said Subash Mohapatra, an Orissa High Court lawyer.
Infocity police station inspector-in-charge Manoj Samant said police are always on the toes to contain the menace. “We have been frequently conducting raids in the shops selling such items and imposing fines on both shopkeepers and customers,” he said.
“We are also imposing fines on students found smoking near their colleges, but they are not bothered about it and continue doing so,” added Samant. Efforts by police to stem the consumption and sale of tobacco products, particularly cigarettes reportedly stuffed with cannabis, has evoked mixed responses from college students.
“If we want to smoke, that is our choice. The police action is snatching our liberty,” said Priyabrat, an engineering student at a local college. “Police officials are infringing on our freedom. We are adults and therefore we are free to smoke ‘cigaweed’,” said an MBA student.
However, some students aired their support for seizing tobacco products being sold and consumed near the colleges.
