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From: tedrick@ernie.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Tom Tedrick)
Newsgroups: net.internat,net.legal,net.med
Subject: Re: Where are drugs (opiates) legal?
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Date: Wed, 26-Feb-86 18:53:59 EST
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Posted: Wed Feb 26 18:53:59 1986
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>>      Does anybody out there know of any countries where the use of opiates
>> and/or other drugs for personal or recreational purposes is legal?
>> 					 John Bashinski
>
>In India there are holy men (people? - I didn't see any women doing this) 
>who generally wear saffron colored robes and roam around the country in
>search of enlightenment.  They don't own anything and must beg for their
>food etc.  Some of them use optiates (and maybe other drugs) in the process
>and this is socially accepted.  There are also many westerners or former
>westerners - literally leftover hippies - who have discarded their
>visas and passports to do the same thing (although I would guess their
>rate of enlightenment is somewhat lower).  It is relatively easy to get
>drugs there.  I don't know if they are technically illegal, but Indian
>society generally frowns upon drug use among its own people and doesn't
>care much what the others do.  There is one holiday in the winter though,
>(something to do with colors, I forget the name) which includes the use
>of bhang, which I've heard is pretty potent stuff.
>
>A few years ago some friends of mine were in Agra.  When they stopped
>for a lassi (a drink made from yogert), one of them got the 'special
>lassi' because it only cost an extra nickel (american).  After some time
>he thought he was getting sun stroke because he was so dizzy.  When he
>went to lie down, the other guy went back to the store to find that the
>special lassi was special because it has bhang in it.  Jim was releived to
>find out it was only drugs.
>
>-Mark Garrett

That reminded me: there are a couple drugs that seem to
be widely used in India that I tried when I was there.
One is betel nut, I think. After dinner they pass a box
of this stuff around, and everyone takes some. Supposedly
it is for digestion only, but I got stoned from it.

Also they sell some stuff wrapped in a green leaf on the
street (maybe its betel leaf). I tried some once and it
was quite potent. Really made my head ring.

The Indian coffee is probably the strongest drug of all :-)