While cannabis is illegal in India today, it wasn’t always the case. The Indian Hemp Commission of 1894 had concluded that its use is very ancient, and is harmless in moderation. So, what brought about this change?
In India, it is believed that Lord Shiva had once wandered off into the fields after a debate with his family.
Drained, he fell asleep under a big, leafy tree. When he awoke, he sampled a few of the leaves and instantly fell rejuvenated. Those leaves, it turned out, were cannabis and it quickly became Lord Shiva’s favourite food.
Indian mythology is replete with mentions of cannabis or the other dozen names it goes by — marijuana, Mary Jane, weed, pot, hemp, and grass.
Cannabis has had an interesting history in the country; from being used widely in the form of bhang by soldiers to being criminalised through the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
As the world marks World Weed Day today (on 20 April), we take a look at the journey of cannabis in India.
Understanding cannabis
Before we delve into the history of cannabis in India, let’s try to first understand what cannabis is.
Simply put, cannabis is a plant. It contains chemicals called cannabinoids, including delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis is commonly used as a recreational drug.
Also referred to as Mary Jane, pot or ganja, the oldest archeological evidence for the burning of cannabis was found in Romanian kurgans dated 3,500 BC, and scholars suggest that the drug was first used in ritual ceremonies by Proto-Indo-European tribes.
Also read: Can cannabis prevent COVID-19? Maybe, but here’s why smoking weed won’t help
India’s early highs with cannabis
In India, cannabis finds mention in legends and even in religion. According to reports, the earliest mention of cannabis has been found in the Vedas.
According to the Vedas, cannabis was one of the five sacred plants and a guardian angel lived in its leaves.
Lord Shiva is also believed to have been a user of cannabis.
During the 10th century CE, it was called the ‘food of the gods’.
In the Middle Ages, it has been reported that soldiers consumed bhaang before entering battle, as it gave them strength. There’s a famous tale that Guru Gobind Singh, the founder of the Sikh religion, is said to have given his panicked soldiers a combination of bhaang and opium when he saw them wavering during a critical battle. Once the drugs kicked in, it is believed that one soldier stabbed an elephant in the belly to kill it. Singh’s men won the battle and they celebrated by drinking bhaang.
In the 1890s, the British found that Indians used cannabis extensively. In response to this, they appointed the Indian Hemp Commission to look into the cultivation of the hemp plant, preparation of drugs from it, trade in those drugs, the social and moral impact of its consumption, and possible prohibition.
It carried out extensive studies and interviewed 1,193 people in 86 meetings arranged in 30 cities all under the supervision of W Hackworth Young, who was assisted by three European officials and “three native non-official gentlemen”.
It then recommended that the government continue the existing policy of taxation, but at higher rates to discourage its use, rather than an outright ban. They concluded that its use is very ancient, has some religious sanction among Hindus, and is harmless in moderation. In fact, more harm was done by alcohol.
Interestingly, two members of the commission, both Indians, had dissented with the report and said that the British should not tax hemp, but ban it outright.
In India, cannabis finds mention even in religion. According to reports, the earliest mention of cannabis has been found in the Vedas. AFP
Cannabis being made illegal
In the ‘1970s, cannabis continued to be legal in India and smoked by many.
In 1978, Bob Dylan, the famous singer and Nobel laureate, a then teen reached the shores of Goa. In his recollection of events, he says that there were three huts on a cliff by the sea, where he hung with sadhus smoking charas, and learning other typically “Indian” things.
Interestingly, it was around this time that the Richard Nixon administration launched a ‘war on drugs’.
In 1961, “single convention on narcotic drugs” was the first ever international treaty to have clubbed cannabis with hard drugs and imposed a blanket ban on their production and supply except for medicinal and research purposes.
The Times of India reports that during the negotiations for this treaty, India opposed its intolerance to the sociocultural use of organic drugs. They were however overwhelmed by the US and other western countries.
In 1985, the Rajiv Gandhi government succumbed to pressure and passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, or NDPS, which basically prohibits a person to produce/manufacture/cultivate, possess, store, transport and/or consume any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance.
The Act came about when the United States was grappling with drug consumption and ‘excesses of the hippie culture’.
Through sustained campaigning, cannabis was suddenly looked down upon — it went from the ‘food of gods’ to ‘satan’s plant’.
While recreational use of marijuana isn’t permitted, India allows the use of it in medicinal purposes. AFP
Cannabis in India today
Weed remains illegal in India. However, there’s a grey area when it comes to bhaang and it is widely consumed on Holi.
In 2021, cannabis captured the headlines and people’s attention when Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, was arrested under the NDPS Act. It was alleged that Aryan was was involved in conspiracy and illicit drug trafficking.
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had argued that although there was no recovery from Aryan Khan, the recovery of six grams of charas from his friend Arbaaz Merchant points to “conscious possession” by Aryan Khan.
Similarly, actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested in 2020, with the NCB stating that Rhea was “an active member of a drug syndicate”. The NCB’s case hinged on the “discovery of 59 grams of curated marijuana from two men identified as Abbas Lakhani and Karan Arora” and the links they allegedly had with those close to Rajput.
While cannabis remain illegal in the country, there are some who have been asking for its legalisation.
Congress MP and wordsmith Shashi Tharoor has argued that the “land of bhang” should legalise the drug.
Writing for The Print, the Congress MP had written, “Legally regulating the production, supply, and use of cannabis in India will reduce the potential harms of the drug’s use, put a dent in corruption and crime, and provide our country with an economic boost.”
Similarly, Tathagata Satpathy from Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has been urging that cannabis be made legal since 2015. During his political career, he vouched for the legalisation of cannabis, and even admitted that he had smoked it while in college.
“Cannabis is a drug that has been given a bad name, the alcohol lobby, peddling something far more dangerous, has managed to club cannabis with more dangerous narcotics,” Satpathy had told The Hindu.
In a ‘ask me anything session’, he had also shown netizens how to legally score cannabis in his own state.
As recently as January this year, the Centre told Delhi High Court that the use of cannabis was not fully banned in the country, as its medical and scientific use is allowed under the law.
“There is no complete ban on cannabis under NDPS Act but can be used for medical, scientific, industrial, horticultural purposes by taking requisite permissions from respective state governments,” the affidavit filed by Director, Narcotics Control, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance said.
We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but why not stir the ‘pot’.
With inputs from agencies
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