India Police Charge Amazon Execs In Alleged Marijuana Smuggling Case (reuters.com) 41
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Indian police said on Saturday they had charged senior executives of Amazon.com's local unit under narcotics laws in a case of alleged marijuana smuggling via the online retailer. Police in the central Madhya Pradesh state arrested two men with 20 kg of marijuana on Nov. 14 and found they were using the Amazon India website to order and further smuggle the substance in the guise of stevia leaves, a natural sweetener, to other Indian states.
State police said in a statement that executive directors of Amazon India were being named as accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act due to differences in answers in documents provided by the company in response to police questions and facts unearthed by discussion. Police did not disclose how many executives were charged. The police, who had previously summoned and spoken to Amazon executives in the case, estimate that about 1,000 kg of marijuana, worth roughly $148,000, was sold via Amazon.
State police said in a statement that executive directors of Amazon India were being named as accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act due to differences in answers in documents provided by the company in response to police questions and facts unearthed by discussion. Police did not disclose how many executives were charged. The police, who had previously summoned and spoken to Amazon executives in the case, estimate that about 1,000 kg of marijuana, worth roughly $148,000, was sold via Amazon.
Now that's customer service. (Score:4, Funny)
Wow! India Amazon has all the good stuff.
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There is no historic ban on cannabis products for Muslims [europepmc.org], where do you get this from?
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Probably due to the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs [unodc.org] and wanting to suck up to the US for military assistance more than anything else.
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It's mind-boggling that in 2021 we're still concerned about MJ.
Yes, how dare we warn people [cnn.com] of the dangers of [cnn.com] this drug [cnn.com].
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Oh yes, the US sent adults to prison for using cannabis "because of the children" for decades and the anti-cannabis lobbies have grown fat on federal funding
Do you wanna know why they use propaganda about children? Because humans behave irrationally when they think children are threatened and fear rushes people into making bad decisions
They are going to keep this crap up for decades, particularly if they get a share of the tax dollars for "education"
Fun fact, the US government prohibits research institution
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It's mind-boggling that in 2021 we're still concerned about MJ.
Only to those who do not know history.
The last time [wikipedia.org] a big country have lots of its people addicted to drugs, it resulted in over a century of suffering and humiliation of the people in that country.
Wise for India to not wanting to go down that path.
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OTOH, it was the war against opium that brought China to it's knees. Much like the War on drugs is shredding the foundations of the U.S. today.
Not claiming recreational opium is anything like a good idea, just the warfare against it has a long history of failure.
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Marijuana is not opium and from what I know fairly common in parts of India, grows wild and is potent. As for nations addicted to drugs, look at alcohol addiction in many countries with its negative affects then there is caffeine, which may be worse then marijuana, is marketed to children and a large portion of the population is addicted to, quite likely including you.
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What's mind boggling is that ganja is native to India, part of Hindu rituals, sold in edible form by the government itself, and was made illegal under western pressure in 1980s. It grows everywhere, and everyone has smoked it but by god if you try to turn it into a business the government will crack down on you if you skip their commission.
Get with the program Amazon! (Score:2, Insightful)
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There might be "excessive" losses between Amazon and the customer.
$148/kg (Score:2)
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Quarter pounds in the mid-late 1980s were around $400-500, and quarter ounces sold for somewhere between $30-50. Price varied as much around supply/availability as quality, which varied between kind of lame to somewhat decent.
By 1990 or so, it seemed like quarter ounces were closer to $50 consistently and QPs closer to $700. I mostly think the price increases were related to most cannabis becoming a domestically grown product. Quality went up, but availability seemed to get spottier.
Of course all of this
Re: $148/kg (Score:2)
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Explains the resumes from Indian offshore companie (Score:1)
'Nuff said.
Amazon Weed Services (Score:5, Funny)
I logged in to Slashdot for the first time in over a year just to make that joke.
Re: Amazon Weed Services (Score:3)
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Amazon Fire.
Narcotics Laws in India (Score:2)
Did India have narcotics laws before the U.S. asked them to?
--
I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there. - Richard P. Feynman
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Probably not. The USA has a long history of trying to strong arm their laws and "Morals" on other countries and societies.
Hells until 1937 the USA didn't even care about Cannabis as a drug at all. Fact is Hemp wide spread and well known in the USA. It was hailed as a Billion Dollar (in 1936 $) crop for just it's textile applications alone. Then Hearst and Dow Chemicals fucked it up for everyone just to line their own pockets.
Re: Narcotics Laws in India (Score:1)
The first cannabis prohibition in the US was a law passed in 1910.
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Citation please
In the mid 19th century, medical interest in the use of cannabis began to grow in the West. In the 19th century cannabis was one of the secret ingredients in several so called patent medicines. There were at least 2000 cannabis medicines prior to 1937, produced by over 280 manufacturers [wikipedia.org]
What changed it all was the US Congress passing laws to encourage hemp production after WW1 (they ran out of rope), and existing cellulose and newcoming artificial fiber companies (Hearst owned vast tracts of l
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I wouldn't be surprised if some State did try to prohibit it back then. There was a large movement to ban everything pleasurable, even chocolate, around the end of the 19th century, beginning of the 20th
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You make a fair point, I was just focusing on national prohibition
It's not hard too imagine prohibitionists going after patent medicines when the majority had opium in them, of course that played into the AMA's hands bwahaha
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Most all drugs were available at your neighbourhood drug store, whether in pure form or as various medicines. Opium works very well as a cough suppressant, cocaine as a pick me up.
It's illegal? (Score:1)
Stories like these remind me that marijuana is still illegal in some places.
$148 per kilo? (Score:2)
Geez - I used to pay almost that much for 30 grams! I guess that's what they mean by "volume discount".
Not a meme (Score:2)
So, to be serious and not dumb AF for a minute like most of the posts here, how were the Amazon execs supposed to know the Stevia being sold on it's site was not actually Stevia? And why not just go the whole hog and put an arrest warrant out for Jeff Bezos, no? Why not?
Seems like a dumb political dick-swinging move by India's police done to attract media attention.
Re: Not a meme (Score:2)
Seems they aren't actually interested in prosecuting amazon execs, since that case would end up being thrown out by a judge later anyway, but since the execs aren't providing details about a few hundred other similar 'suspected sellers' the police / govt are trying to strong arm them. The drug laws do have lot of potential to harass for a few weeka and hence get bribes etc even if actual evidence is zero.
We should just disband all this anti drug policing of end users and small dealers. It just wastes money
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The "entrapment - corruption nexus" also relies on life-long addiction and seeks to undermine effective detox/treatment options for opioid addicts
The US has outlawed an effective treatment (Ibogaine [maps.org]) and simply relies on long term maintenance with strong opioids (suboxone, methadone) with no clear path to getting off of those.
It is clear than many people in power find it useful for a large percentage of the US population to be addicts (fyi, no such thing as a cannabis addict, quitting cannabis is easier tha [americanad...enters.org]