The story · written by grok-4.7,
A notification of 23 December 1954 prohibited bringing ganja into Punjab and possessing any quantity of it there.[1] The same words cover any preparation of admixture of ganja. The Governor made the order, and called it a prohibition of the import and possession of ganja as an intoxicant.[1]
Left with the state
The 1896 excise act applied in the Punjab and the other territories it listed, and treated ganja, bhang and charas as intoxicating drugs. The Dangerous Drugs Act of 1930 then became the national narcotics law. It still left growing, selling, possessing and consuming hemp to provincial, later state, excise laws. Making an extract or a tincture needed a licence. Punjab’s order is one of those state rules. It was made under sections 17(a) and 24(4) of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914, Act 1 of that year.[1]
Bombay had already closed charas in the city and in Ahmedabad from 1 August 1939. In parts of Ahmednagar and Kanara the permit-free amount of ganja was cut to half a tola. That was another province’s rule. The 1954 order is Punjab’s, and it is about ganja, not about a gram limit.
Any quantity
| What the order covers | What it says |
|---|---|
| Import into the State of Punjab | Prohibited |
| Possession within Punjab | Any quantity of ganja |
| A preparation of admixture | Prohibited with the ganja |
The order’s own name is the Punjab Import and Possession of Ganja Orders, 1954.[1] There is no permit in these lines, and no amount a person may keep. The Governor made the order in place of earlier notifications “issued in this behalf”.[1] The reprint gives no numbers or dates for those earlier notifications.
The text that was read is a republication of 9 August 1962, notification GSR 139, whose number refers to sections 17 and 14.[1] The body is notification No. 2525-E&T-54/2606 of 23 December 1954, and that date is the only day the order gives.[1]
What came next in the record
The following July Punjab made a separate order on charas, in force at once from 14 July 1955. Assam’s 1958 Act prohibited the sale, purchase, possession and consumption of ganja and bhang in that state. In 1985 the national law made flower and resin illegal everywhere and left the leaves out. Until that Act, the same account says, cannabis was regulated by state excise laws and sold in licensed shops in much of the country. 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.