The NCB is relying on a recent Supreme Court ruling in Hira Singh’s case which said that the weight of mixtures of drugs sold on street ought to be considered including a neutral substance, not just its pure form. He has been in Taloja Central prison since his arrest last year. Last September, Keshwani was found in possession of 0.62gm, said the NCB, when 31 blotter papers with LSD were recovered during a search, apart from other drugs.
The commercial value of LSD is 0.1gm due to its potency. If the amount is ‘small’, punishment is less for ‘commercial’ value, the sentence is severe. The battle over the weight of the drug and the legal point on whether blotter paper weight matters assumes importance as offences under the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) depend on the drug weight for punishments. But Rizwan Merchant, counsel for alleged peddler Anuj Keshwani (30) said the paper can be separated from the drug and hence it cannot be considered part of the drug or its mixture and its weight has to be discarded, under the law. Singh said that since the paper is consumed too, it forms a part of the mixture and when seized, its weight has to be factored in too.
The NCB also relied on a US Supreme Court majority 7:2 judgment in Chapman Vs United States which held that “it is the weight of the blotter paper containing LSD, and not the weight of the pure LSD, which determines eligibility of minimum sentence”.
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), a hallucinogenic narcotic drug, is placed as small dots on blotter paper for consumption. MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday asked the Narcotics Control Bureau ( NCB) to amend its petition on the LSD drug weight issue after its counsel, additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, said it was challenging the validity of an earlier high court order, which held blotter paper to only be a carrier material and not part of the mixture.
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