Pan shops emerge as cannabis chocolate retail hubs in Hyderabad

Small pan shops and provision outlets are increasingly being used as retail points for cannabis-laced chocolates in Hyderabad, according to enforcement officials. Recent raids have exposed a supply network involving interstate transporters, local suppliers, shopkeepers and consumers across city neighbourhoods.

Hyderabad: Drug peddlers in the city seem to have been increasingly using small pan shops and provision outlets as convenient retail points to push cannabis-laced chocolates to consumers.

Recent raids by police and excise department officials revealed a supply chain stretching from neighbouring States to the city’s localities.

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Cannabis-infused chocolates are smuggled into the city in bulk and then supplied to selected pan-shop operators, who stock them alongside regular confectionery and tobacco products. “The shops provide an easy point of contact with customers and allow peddlers to reach daily wage workers, youngsters and other consumers without openly selling conventional cannabis,” said a police official.

Recent cases have also highlighted the role of migrant workers in this supply network. Police and excise officials had earlier found that migrant workers travelling from Odisha, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh to Hyderabad for construction and other jobs were carrying marijuana-chocolates with them and selling them to co-workers and customers in their neighbourhoods. Such products were subsequently found at small pan shops.

The pan shops also give drug suppliers an additional layer of distance from the end consumer. Instead of dealing directly with every buyer, suppliers can stock the products with shopkeepers, who then sell individual packets or chocolates to customers.

Officials are now focusing attention not only on the people transporting the chocolates but also on the local network of suppliers, shopkeepers and repeat customers that keeps the trade moving.

With the products resembling ordinary sweets, enforcement authorities fear that their sale through pan shops can make them particularly difficult for parents and genuine customers to identify.