Indonesian narcotics agencies have been attempting to prevent the circulation of certain recreational substances like Super Gorilla tobacco, which is reportedly tobacco laced with synthetic cannabis chemicals, but have had difficulty doing so due to the substance’s uncertain legal status.
Even as lawmakers are in the midst of drafting new laws to criminalize Super Gorilla and other similarly new wave narcotics, police in Bogor discovered another type of tobacco, also reportedly containing synthetic cannabis compounds, called Ganesha. And police say it’s 10 times more potent than Super Gorilla.
“The user only has to inhale the smoke three times to become unconscious or pass out,” said Bogor Police’s head of Narcotics, Andri Alam Wijaya, as quoted by Okezone yesterday.
Two sacks of Ganesha, weighing 22 kg in total, were first discovered several days ago lying by a canal in the resort town of Puncak near Bogor. The packaging of the synthetic tobacco featured a logo resembling the Hindu god Ganesha, after whom the product is named.
The Bogor Police have sent samples of the substance to the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) for further testing.
The Health Ministry is currently finalizing a draft on regulations which would define substances containing synthetic cannabis as Category I narcotics as per the nation’s Law on Narcotics, which would place it the same category of drugs as heroin, cocaine and all-natural marijuana.
A quick search online shows that Ganesha, like Super Gorilla, has been sold online for at least a couple of years before the Bogor Police’s recent “discovery”. Their latest finding will probably push the government to act more aggressively to criminalize the underground tobacco brands as soon as possible.
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