An account on Instagram and the right hashtags can help one get easy access to charas (cannabis) in Himachal Pradesh.
Based on the location entered while uploading pictures and the hashtags used, charas dealers in the region track down potential customers, reported Hindustan Times.
The report said that as soon as the dealers find a customer, they follow them on Instagram and once followed back, direct messages are sent to their Insta inbox giving details of the "maal" or "stuff", including photos.
Show more interest and it escalates to home delivery, and the preferred mode is government-run Speed Post. No private courier service, report added.
Some of the dealers also put their phone numbers in the captions. For example, “Need charas .... call me. Jai Shiv!” The reverence for Lord Shiva comes from His popular depiction smoking marijuana/cannabis in "chillum".
Money can be sent to the bank account, the details of which are provided by the dealers via WhatsApp.
Interestingly, the dealers do not use any other social media sites like Facebook.
To some extent, even the police is complicit. “Look, charas is sold here and is sent outside too. That’s a fact. And we constantly work on curbing it. We did get some input about such manner of selling (via social media) some months ago, but nothing much came of it. Maybe these people are duping people. We are on it,” Kullu SP Padam Chand said.
