The story · written by grok-4.7,
From 1 August 1939 no one could transport, possess or sell charas in Bombay or in Ahmedabad.[1] In parts of two other districts the province cut how much ganja or bhang a person could carry without a permit. People already using hemp drugs could keep a limited amount if a doctor certified them.[1]
Left to the province
Bombay kept its own excise system. The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930 then became the national narcotics law, and it still left growing, selling, possessing and consuming hemp to the provinces. Making an extract or a tincture needed a licence. Bombay’s 1939 step is one of those provincial rules. The Government of India called it a step toward extending prohibition, and reported it to the League of Nations in a return dated at New Delhi on 12 December 1940.[1]
Two cities, and a smaller allowance
| Place | What changed |
|---|---|
| Bombay and Ahmedabad | Transport, possession and sale of charas prohibited from 1 August 1939 |
| Parts of Ahmednagar and Kanara | Without a permit: half a tola of ganja, about 5.85 grams, or two tolas of bhang, about 23.4 grams |
The report gives those gram weights itself.[1] The smaller allowance applied to transport and possession. In the same areas the permit-free amount of opium was cut to a quarter of a tola, about 2.9 grams.[1] Ganja and bhang in those districts stayed within the new amounts. Charas in Bombay and Ahmedabad was closed altogether: transport, possession and sale.
A permit for people already using it
People described as addicts of hemp drugs could still possess and consume the drug they needed, up to maxima the province set, on a permit issued against a certificate from a registered medical practitioner.[1] The same sentence covers opium addicts. The League circulated this return from Geneva on 9 May 1942.[1] The maxima themselves are left unprinted, so the permit is the part a reader can check: a certificate from a registered practitioner, then a permit, then a capped amount of the drug.
The same year’s return records a separate central rule on preparations of Indian hemp extract, and Bihar’s extension of prohibition. 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.