Economics of highs

If you have participated in, or are even vaguely familiar with, the market in stimulants/intoxicants like tea, cigarettes, or marijuana (ganja) in India, this piece by Sauvik Chakraverti at Antidote is a must-read. Sauvik is a ganja-loving, government-hating libertarian and a tarty critic of what he thinks are the anti-people policies of the Manmohan Singh government (he sarcastically calls Singh 'Chacha'). I often don't agree with or like the views on Antidote, but today's piece cracked me up.

Sauvik talks about bad air and bad ganja in Delhi, and argues that 20 rupees is better spent on three India Kings and a cup of tea than a pudiya (a few grams) of sub-par ganja.

The piece is titled 'Bum Shankar' and I would like to point out to the uninformed that ganja is understood to be the preferred stimulant of Shiva (Shankar), and his believers consider smoking ganja a form of offering prasad. 'Jai Bum Shankar', 'Bum Bum Bhole' etc are chants adopted by worshippers.