The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report, completed in 1894 hailed cannabis for the “mild euphoria” and “pleasant relaxation” caused by it. The Hemp report was an Indo-British study of cannabis usage in India.
In fact, till 1985, all cannabis derivatives like marijuana, hashish and bhang, were legally sold in India.
Lets cut back to 1961 - the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs - an international UN treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific drugs - imposed a blanket ban on drug production and supply except for medicinal and research purposes. The UN treaty clubbed cannabis (or marijuana) with hard drugs.
India, incidentally, had led a group of cannabis and opium-producing countries to oppose the inclusion of organic drugs in this 1961 treaty.
Senior journalist Manoj Mitta writes that this group of countries led by India “were however overwhelmed by the US and other western countries which espoused tight controls on the production of organic raw material and on illicit trafficking.”
The 1961 treaty gave India a relaxation of 25 years to phase out “recreational drugs” due to the existing trends of marijuana use in the country. The exemption period ended in 1985 and India enacted the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), in consonance with the 1961 treaty.
Both the treaty and the NDPS act enabled a loophole in the definition of cannabis; its leaves and seeds have not been defined as contraband.
NDPS allows people to smoke pot or drink bhang so long as they can prove that they had consumed only the leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant, writes Mitta.
In 1997, AIIMS called for a repeal of the cannabis ban saying the plant was used in the Indian system of medicine and that its stigmatisation was impeding research.
Given the current trend of legalising ‘recreational drugs’ in the US itself, India could perhaps take a cue from the very country that pressured it to ban them.
The Quint firmly believes that it is time to say #YesToWeed. If you share our thoughts or would like to argue otherwise, use the comments section below.