The story · written by grok-4.7,
In 1939 Bihar prohibited the transport and possession of ganja and bhang in the places where it extended a prohibition scheme.[1] The duty on both drugs went up at the same time. The Government of India reported the change to the League of Nations in a return dated at New Delhi on 12 December 1940.[1]
Where it applied
The places named are the Hajipur subdivision and parts of the districts of Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Manbhum.[1] The report ties the ban to a further extension of a prohibition scheme already under way in those areas. The sentence is limited to those places. Bihar made this ban under its own provincial rules. The 1930 Act left possession and sale of hemp to each province, so a ban of this kind was Bihar’s to make.
The duty
| Drug | Duty per seer |
|---|---|
| Ganja | Raised from 35 rupees to 50 |
| Bhang | Raised from 3 rupees to 4 |
| Opium | Raised from 90 rupees to 140 |
The opium figure is in the same sentence.[1] Elsewhere in the return a seer is given as about 935 grams, in the United Provinces’ opium price.[1] The Bihar paragraph uses the seer as its rate and does not repeat that weight. Hajipur is a subdivision. Ranchi, Hazaribagh and Manbhum are districts, and the ban there is for certain areas of each, together with the whole of the Hajipur subdivision as the sentence is written. The League circulated the return from Geneva on 9 May 1942.[1]
Beside the other provinces
The same Bihar paragraph introduced opium consumers’ tickets in the prohibited areas, so that opium could be sold to, and held by, only the people the collector had registered.[1] That ticket system is stated for opium. The ganja and bhang rule in the paragraph is the prohibition of transport and possession, together with the higher duty.
Bombay, the same year, prohibited charas in the city and in Ahmedabad and cut the permit-free amounts of ganja and bhang in parts of two districts. The United Provinces raised the duty on charas by 20 rupees a seer. The current account of Indian law is on the country profile.
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for India here.
References
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.