{"id":3211,"date":"2016-07-06T10:23:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T10:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faceinews.com\/?p=3211"},"modified":"2016-07-06T10:23:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T10:23:40","slug":"187-kg-of-banned-tobacco-products-seized-in-raids-vendor-arrested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/?p=3211","title":{"rendered":"187 kg of banned tobacco products seized in raids, vendor arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"body\"><a href=\"http:\/\/faceinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5JULY16CHADI-T_07_2921576f.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3212\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3212 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/faceinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5JULY16CHADI-T_07_2921576f-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"5JULY16CHADI--T_07_2921576f\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5JULY16CHADI-T_07_2921576f-300x212.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/5JULY16CHADI-T_07_2921576f.jpg 636w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Following the hospitalisation of a 13-year-old boy who consumed a sweet laced with \u2018bhang\u2019, the Food Safety Department conducted raids in several parts of the city on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">Four teams conducted raids in Broadway, Sowcarpet, Perambur, Ashok Nagar and Purasawalkam High Road and seized 187 kg of banned tobacco products from 81 shops. One vendor has been arrested.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">\u2018Bhang\u2019 is an edible preparation of cannabis used in food and drink.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">\u201cOne shop in Tondiarpet had a packet containing 25 pieces of the sweet laced with \u2018bhang\u2019,\u201d said R. Kathiravan, designated officer of the department. The substance, he explained, was similar to \u2018puli mittai\u2019 and was being marketed as an Ayurvedic drug and illegally sold to students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">\u201cWe have handed over the vendor to the local police,\u201d the officer said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">Meanwhile, a doctor at the Institute of Child Health said the 13-year-old student had shown signs of improvement on Tuesday. \u201cHe is no longer on ventilator support. We are hoping he recovers soon,\u201d the doctor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><b>Fact-finding team<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"inarticle_wrapper_div\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"body\">Meanwhile, child rights activists formed a fact-finding team and visited schools in Kodambakkam, including the one where the 13-year-old studies. \u201cApart from the corporation school in Patel Nagar, no other school has recorded such incidents. However we hope the children are not using it,\u201d said S. Cyril Alexander, State Convenor of Tamil Nadu People\u2019s Forum for Tobacco Control (TNPFTC).<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">Two other boys, who also consumed the drug-laced sweets in small quantities, complained of illness and nausea. \u201cThe boys were introduced to it by a vendor in Kodambakkam. We explained to the children the seriousness of the matter,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">\u201cThe boys said the product was sold during a religious festival near Kodambakkam Power House,\u201d said M.S.Santhamary, project officer at Arunodaya.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\"><b>Strict action sought<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">Activists demanded that anyone possessing or selling marijuana be booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. \u201cWe found that the substance came from Indore. It is legal there.The police have arrested the vendor and booked him under the Act, but are waiting for lab reports to know the marijuana content in the product,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"body\">\u201cWe expect the school authorities to keep a close watch on their students\u201d said Andrew Sesuraj from the Tamil Nadu Child Rights Observatory (TNCRO).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the hospitalisation of a 13-year-old boy who consumed a sweet laced with \u2018bhang\u2019, the Food Safety Department conducted raids in several parts of the city on Tuesday. Four teams conducted raids in Broadway, Sowcarpet, Perambur, Ashok Nagar and Purasawalkam High Road and seized 187 kg of banned tobacco products from 81 shops. One vendor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3213,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3211\/revisions\/3213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.faceinews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}