Knock, knock?
Who's there?
Ganja and charas...
Ganja and charas who?
Ganja and charas legalization...
As I was painting my Flag of Freedom on my car cover one day in April 2023, a young man passing by said, 'Hey, I like your motif. Are you planning to create a petition?"
"No", I said, "There needs to be more awareness about the issue among the public, so the aim is to get more people to think about it and understand the issue before a petition can be created that has sufficient impact. Right now, the level of awareness among the public is itself very low."
Later, as I pondered over this, I thought, well, why not? I had spent most of the previous year going through and writing about the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report of 1894-95. The report gave quite a detailed view of cannabis usage in 19th century India, and the importance of cannabis to the people of India then. There was more than enough material in the report to show that the prohibition of cannabis was a gross injustice to the people of India, especially India's poorest sections of society. I too was finding it extremely difficult to access ganja as it was now scarcely available to me, as well as too expensive for me, even as I grew older and needed the herb more as time passed by. If nothing else, it would be a voice bringing the attention of the Supreme Court of India to a violation of fundamental rights that has been going on for about 150 years now, with scarcely anybody among the public, or even at the level of legislature and judiciary, even thinking about ganja and charas legalization, let alone talking about and doing something about it. Besides, I wanted to see what the thought process was in this matter among the highest judiciary of the land with the main function of protecting fundamental rights of the citizen as enshrined in the Constitution of India.
I decided to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India, stating that my fundamental right to life through the use of safe intoxicant, natural medicine, my right to sustainable livelihood, my right against discrimination and my right to freedom of religion were all violated by the prohibition of ganja and charas in India. The Supreme Court of India is the custodian of a citizen's fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution. I saw that the most direct and simple approach involved the filing of a Mandamus Writ Petition asking the Supreme Court to declare that cannabis prohibition is a violation of an individual's fundamental rights and asking the Court to direct the Government of India to remove cannabis prohibition in India as it violated my fundamental rights. It was as simple as the Supreme Court issuing a notice to the Government of India, and through a mandamus writ notifying the government to remove cannabis and all associated terms such as bhang, charas/hashish, ganja and THC from the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985.
I saw that one could file a petition online at the Supreme Court through the e-Filing option provided on the Supreme Court website. So, I got to work putting together the writ petition. I worked on it for a couple of months, and by June 2023 I had a writ petition of about 80 pages, and annexures providing support to the petition running to about 4000 pages. The petition spoke about the cannabis culture in India till it was prohibited starting from the 19th century, as well as various aspects such as the medical use, religious use, myths created to prohibit cannabis, regulatory measures taken, classes that consumed cannabis, the widespread opposition to cannabis prohibition, the recommendation from the Commission that cannabis should not be prohibited, and so on...It also spoke about the various articles in the Constitution that were violated by ganja and charas prohibition - namely Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46 and 49 - and the various fundamental rights - right to equality, right against discrimination, right to sustainable livelihood, right to personal liberty, right to religious freedom and right to safe intoxicant and medicine. Besides my fundamental rights that have been violated, I stated that the cannabis plant - as a creation of nature - also suffered various rights violations. Rivers and other natural entities have been personified and given rights that many judicial courts have upheld in the past. I stated that ganja and charas prohibition violated the right to life, right to equality and right to protection of the cannabis plant which was now in a precarious position given the widespread extermination of the plant that had gravely affected its biodiversity. The petition spoke about the various threats against cannabis legalization and steps to be taken for ganja and charas to be legalized completely so that it is available to the sections of society that need it the most - the poorest, the indigenous communities and aboriginal tribes, the sick, the elderly, etc.
I filed the petition online, and within a few days the Supreme Court Registry responded back with feedback. I was pleasantly surprised with the detailed feedback that was provided. This was not regarding the content of the petition, but mainly regarding the procedural aspects that the Registry was responsible for. They asked me to change the format of some documents, file some additional documents, etc. I had initially named the Attorney General of India as respondent to the petition but was informed by the Registry that it would have to be a central department and its top official. When I looked up who controlled the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, I found that it was under the control of the Department of Revenue, in the Ministry of Finance of the Union Government of India. I found that the Revenue Secretary was the highest administrative official in this department, so I made him the respondent. I was asked to create a synopsis, which I did of about 8 pages. I was asked why I was filing a Civil Writ Petition and not a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) since the matter seemed to affect millions of persons in India. I responded back that I wished to speak for myself, and address the issue of my specific rights violations at this point in time. Fundamental rights are as applicable to a single person as they are to hundreds of millions of persons. When asked if I required a court appointed attorney or amicus curiae, I declined as I wished to represent the case as a party-in-person, so that I could interact with the judges directly, and show my serious intent in this matter. There was a requirement to mention similar or related cases. When I searched the Supreme Court database of past cases using the search queries 'cannabis', 'ganja', and 'charas', I found that there were no similar cases related to ganja and charas where a petitioner had filed for legalization based on violation of fundamental rights. Cases were listed from as early as the 1960s in the database but almost all of them were regarding arrests of persons for possession, trade or cultivation. In terms of choosing the Subject Matter Category in which the writ petition fell, I initially listed numerous categories as I felt that this had implications across many areas. Finally based on the interaction with the Registry, the writ petition was filed under the main subject matter category classification - 1800 - Ordinary Civil Matters, and the sub classification as 1807 - Others. This, I felt did not reflect the true significance of the writ petition. If the violation of so many articles and fundamental rights in the Constitution was finally reduced to Ordinary Civil Matters, Others, it somehow seemed like due importance was not given to the matter at this point itself. When the main function of the Supreme Court of India is to protect and safeguard the fundamental rights of the citizens of India, how did this matter get to be classified as such, and what were all the other matters that gained precedence. In fact, there are a large number of subject matter categories under which cases can be filed in the Supreme Court, 47 in fact, with some having more than a dozen subcategories. There is no single category called Violation of Fundamental Rights, or even a subcategory by that name. If anything, the writ petition should have been put in Category 23 - Nine Judges Bench Matter - given the widespread importance and implications of the petition. Instead, it got the lowest possible importance. Since the writ petition ran into 4200+ pages, I was required to split it into seven volumes, each with their individual cover pages and index of contents. All the necessary modifications were made, and the writ petition was finally filed in a defect-free state at the end of August 2023. All in all, it was a good learning process for me.
In early September 2023, I received notification that the writ petition was likely to be listed on October 3, 2023. It was given a Diary Number - 23878 of 2023. I quickly planned my journey to New Delhi and booked train tickets to and fro. I scouted around online and found the cheapest hotel available at walking distance from the Supreme Court complex. I was required by the Registry, as per Supreme Court Rules, to have a face-to-face virtual conference with the Registrar (Judicial Listings) before the hearing since I was a party-in-person. The date of the virtual interaction with the Registrar was fixed for the last week of September. I had a subpar laptop at that time - a machine running Windows 8.1, with a processor equivalent to the Intel 1Gz, and 2 GB RAM. My internet connection at home was also patchy and it generally took me a long time to get through my online work when connected to the web. This was okay for blogging and so on, but not for a video interaction with the Registrar on such an important matter, for me at least, that is. I have never possessed a smartphone, and never intend to do so as well. So, I wrote to the Registry, stating that I do not have a smartphone, and that my laptop was most likely subpar for the video interaction. I asked the Registry if there were any Supreme Court of India affiliated places in Bengaluru, such as, say, the High Court or the District Courts where I could avail of a video conferencing facility for the interaction with the Registrar. I recieved no reply from the Registry regarding this. I think this is a genuine problem that most people do not seem to appreciate. A large part of India is still without a smartphone, and most definitely without a laptop with good internet connection. Most of these people are from the poorest sections of Indian society, so effectively they are cut off from this part of the legal process. On the day of the virtual interaction with the Registrar, I installed the Citrix Webex application on my laptop and clicked on the link sent by the Registry to get into the virtual meeting. I could see the Registrar's office and his desk and chair, but it was early and nobody had logged in yet. The meeting was for about 4.30pm and I logged in around 4.15pm, if I recall right. The minutes ticked by...4.15pm...4.30pm...4.45pm...When the Registrar finally appeared on the call and started speaking, my laptop had gone to sleep. I tried to bring it back to life, but to no avail. The screen was stuck, and even though I could see and hear the Registrar, he could not see or hear me. So, I decided to reboot the system and get back on. As I switched off, I got a phone call from the Registry asking why I had disconnected the call. I explained the problem, and that I was trying to get back on in a few minutes. When I joined the video call again, there was still no improvement in my laptop's response times. I got another call from the Registry, saying that the Registrar would only be available for a few more minutes, and to get a smartphone from somewhere as soon as possible if I wished to interact with him. I borrowed the smartphone from the nearest person I could find who understood the situation, and dialled into a video call with the Registrar. He asked me if I was the person who had filed the petition, to which I said yes. He asked me if I required an attorney to assist me, to which I said no, I would like to appear in court in person. I said that I was not familiar with court procedures, and if needed could an attorney be appointed at a later stage. He said that that would not be a problem. He then asked me for my educational qualifications and my area of specialization for my educational degree, and I stated the same. He wished me all the best and we got off the call. By the next day, I saw my writ petition listed on October 3, 2023, in Court No. 6, as Item No. 12. The presiding judges would be Bela Trivedi and Aniruddha Bose. Things were all set for the next step.
I took the train from Bengaluru to New Delhi and reached there on Gandhi Jayanthi, October 2nd, 2023. It was an auspicious day I thought, landing in New Delhi on the birthday of India's greatest freedom fighter. I picked up some Delhi beedis from a pushcart vendor near the railway station and took a bus to Connaught Place where my hotel was. Getting off at Connaught Place at around 10am, I found the place to be mostly deserted. I walked around the posh shopping center of New Delhi, admiring the shopfronts, and found my hotel. It was discreetly located despite being in the middle of Connaught Place. I liked that. I checked into my room - sufficient for my needs - freshened up and stepped out for some food. I found a small Mughlai place across the street where I had a delicious mutton biriyani made in the Mughlai style. I then set out to find the Supreme Court complex. It was about twenty minutes away, and the roads that led to it were broad tree-lined streets with large universities, foreign embassies and so forth. I found the main entrance to the court complex, timed my walk and went around the complex. There was a large crowd of people at Pragati Maidan. As I walked back to my hotel room, I saw crowds of people starting to visit Connaught Place where the shops were now open and doing brisk business. There was a Gandhi Jayanthi celebration happening in the large park at the center of Connaught Place, with high security and visiting VIPs. The city's elites and tourists milled around these places as the evening grew, while on the street there were small vendors and elderly people trying to make a few rupees. I found a vegetarian place near the hotel and had some chole bhature and a mango lassi for dinner. I went back to the room and went through the notes that I had prepared for the hearing before I went to sleep.
I woke up around 5.30am on the 3rd of October, 2023, got ready, had a breakfast of aloo paratha and tea in my room and set out for the court at around 8.45am. The streets were now full of people, commuting to their places of work in private and public transport. The weather was dry, cool, sunny and pleasant. I carried a print out of the case listing in court and showed it at the entrance to the court complex. I decided to walk as far as possible towards the court complex till I was stopped. This happened at a set of security gates where I was asked by the officer to get an Admit Pass at the counters in the adjacent building. On entering this building, a new glass and steel building, I saw various counters in front of which people were queuing up. There were counters for VIPs, and various kinds of matters. I found the counter for parties-in-person, filled up the necessary application form and stood in the queue. There were about 3 people in front of me. The time was about 9.30am. Court proceedings were scheduled to start at 10.30am. The officials at the counter appeared reluctant to let in people as parties-in-person and were having long conversations with the people in front of me asking for various documents. People waiting at the counter were saying that it was not so difficult to get an admit pass earlier. A police officer came up to the people standing in the queue and took photos of our application forms on her phone. When I finally reached the counter, it was about 10.00am. The person at the counter said that he had done the necessary processing of my application for an admit pass, and that a person from the Registry was required to approve it. He asked me to call the person with whom I had interacted for the preparation and submission of the writ petition and get his approval. I called a number, was directed to another, and spoke to the relevant person from the Registry who said that he had approved the application and asked me to give my phone to the person at the counter. When I went back to the counter, there were more people now gathered there, with people getting impatient and jostling each other. I managed to give my phone to the counter staff. He spoke to the Registry person and printed out my Admit Pass. The time was about 10.30am now. With my admit pass, I hurried through the security gates and walked towards the court complex. I walked past the statue of the citizen, representing the person who set up these institutions to ensure that his fundamental rights were protected. I asked an advocate where Court No. 6 was, and he directed me to the ground floor of the main building.
Court No. 6 was heavily curtained with security staff at the entrance. As I flashed my admit pass and proceeded to enter, I was asked to keep my leather satchel and mobile phone outside. So, I took out my diary, pen and notes and entered the court hall. I was standing at the back of a large hall filled with advocates. I appeared to be the only person in civilian clothes there. There were senior advocates flanked by teams of junior advocates holding files and nodding or walking close behind their seniors. The two judges sat on a raised platform in front of the hall, facing the court. Aniruddha Bose was sitting to the left and Bela Trivedi to the right from where I saw. I noticed two desks in the front of the court, below the judges and further away from the court masters and clerks. Each desk had two microphones. One was labeled Petitioner and the other was labeled Respondent. Advocates were filing up along the left side of the court hall towards the Petitioner desk and I joined this queue. I was jostled and pushed around a bit by advocates going about their business. There seemed to be an air of hostility about for a petitioner-in-person who had come in wearing a half shirt, trousers and shoes, with long matted hair tied in a bunch, and not having any of the appearances of a person who was in court on serious business. I worked my way through the queue. I asked an advocate in front of me what the item number of the case currently in progress was, and how I could get this information. I was a little apprehensive that I was late, and that my case had already been called. He helpfully pointed to a screen in the front of the court hall where the item number of the case currently in progress was highlighted in green. It was on Item No. 8 or 9. I was in time for Item No. 12.
When Item No. 12 turned green on the screen, I stepped up to the Petitioner desk and spoke into the microphones.
"Item No. 12...sirs," I said.
"We are warning you...You have two choices...Dismissal of the case or imposition of costs. The choice is yours", Bela Trivedi berated me. I suddenly felt like I was in school, with the teacher pulling me up - Silence in the class or I will throw you out...
In the meantime, Aniruddha Bose was repeating, "We will dismiss the case...We will dismiss the case...We will dismiss the case..."
I had read an interview in Deccan Herald with Justice Somnath when he retired from the Supreme Court. In the interview, he stated that there were four qualities of a good judge according to Socrates. The first quality was to hear courteously. So much for that...
Stunned and shaken by the hostility from the judges, I managed to say, "What choice do I have?", since this did not look at all like a choice to me. It was like saying Heads I win, Tails you lose...
Then Aniruddha Bose started speaking. After she had fired the opening salvo, Bela Trivedi remained silent throughout the rest of the proceedings.
"We have been reading the papers and we are aware of the situation", he said.
I wondered which papers he had been reading since almost the entire media in India is owned by vested interests, many with connections to the current government. All papers only carried cannabis-maligning news, such as who had been arrested and how much ganja had been seized by law enforcement. The only other cannabis related news that one finds in the newspapers is usually from some so-called medical expert warning of the dangers and addiction that cannabis causes. I hoped that he meant that he had read my writ petition.
"This is a matter for the legislature to decide", Aniruddha Bose continued.
"You know the state of the legislature", I said.
The Legislature, as anybody in India should know, is completely in the hands of the ruling party, with opposition members having no voice in Parliament, and oppressive laws being passed in the name of Bills that were not debated or put before parliamentary committees for discussion and review. Around the time of the court hearing, more than a hundred opposition members had been suspended from Parliament by the ruling party (The situation is slightly better now than it was in October 2023, with the opposition finding some more numbers in the recently concluded parliamentary elections in May 2024). Besides this, the ruling party is backed strongly by the industries opposed to cannabis legalization, especially the petrochemical and synthetic pharmaceutical drug industries. All in all, politicians from every party in the Parliament are only concerned about securing and retaining seats, and in constant conflict with each other, and trying to put each other down. A large number of politicians face serious criminal charges but get tickets and elected purely on the basis that they can amass great wealth and work untiringly for the ruling upper classes and castes. I have not heard of a single instance when the subject of ganja and charas legalization ever came up as a matter to be discussed. The wealth gap between the rich and the poor has increased massively in the recent past, primarily due to the legislature working to ensure that the upper classes and castes get richer at the expense of the rest of the country.
He appeared irritated by my statement, and said angrily, "We know nothing of that sort" or "We will not comment on that" or something like that.
I was angry too by now. The whole idea of coming to the Supreme Court with the petition was because legislature was not doing the job it was supposed to. The reason why the citizens of India created the Supreme Court was precisely to curb violations of fundamental rights and to protect the Constitution and people of India. If the legislature did its job properly, there was absolutely no need for a Supreme Court to exist in the first place. In countries like South Africa and Mexico, the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court respectively have ruled that cannabis prohibition is a violation of fundamental rights of a citizen. This had happened a few years before, but the legislature in both the countries had not gone ahead and legalized cannabis, using various delay tactics to postpone the matter. But the ruling from the top courts in these two countries galvanized the people, enabling them to mount pressure on their legislatures, and nudged the legislature to act. This was something that I had hoped that the Supreme Court of India would do as well. Instead, the court was passing the buck, as if saying, sorry, our hands are tied.
"What fundamental rights do you say have been violated?" Aniruddha Bose asked next.
The tone in which Aniruddha Bose asked this question seemed to me more like - what the hell are you talking about - rather than a genuine attempt to hear me out. This was probably the first question that the judges should have asked in the hearing. But it was asked after thoroughly browbeating me, basically 'Shoot first, ask questions later'...The title of the writ petition itself lists the various Articles of the Constitution that are violated because of ganja and charas prohibition. Section 2. Questions of Law on page 41 of the writ petition details the various articles and fundamental rights of a citizen that are violated due to ganja and charas prohibition. It also describes rights of the cannabis plant, as a creation of nature.
I chose not to answer his question, feeling angry and also getting the feeling that they wanted nothing more to do than to impose costs on me if I said anything. My lack of oral response to the question cannot be deemed as basis for dismissing the case, especially after the intimidatory tactics employed by the judges till that point. I felt like a snake that had slithered into someone's house with people shouting, 'There it is! Strike it on its head before it bites somebody!'
Instead, I asked, "What other path does a citizen of India have other than to approach the Supreme Court?"
The judges did not answer this.
"Can I present the case?" I asked.
"We will dismiss the case", Aniruddha Bose said once again.
I managed to hold back my anger and say into the microphones, "This is a petition to remove the word cannabis, and all its related terms, from the NDPS Act."
"We will dismiss the case", Aniruddha Bose said.
"Thank you, honorable judges", I said, and walked out of the court room.
The hearing of a case is supposed to be where a petitioner is heard out by the judges. In this case, I might as well have been the judge, and they the petitioners for ganja and charas prohibition. From the start it appeared to me that they were the least interested in hearing what I had to say, but, instead, more eager to dismiss the case. They did most of the talking, and then they dismissed the case.
I went back to the hotel room, got rid of the leather shoes that were giving me shoe bite, and got into a more comfortable pair of footwear. I went out and roamed Connaught Place, looking for someplace where I could have some chilled beer. I found a pub and had a few beers. At one point, tremors shook New Delhi and adjacent Nepal, causing the beer barrels that hung from the ceiling of the pub as decoration to swing wildly. The other patrons in the place ran out in panic but returned a short while later when the tremors ceased. Well, I thought, at least nature seems to feel the same way as I do...
I went back to the hotel room in the evening and ordered for some food in my room. I logged into my computer and checked the Supreme Court website for any updates on the case. I found in the case details page that the writ petition had been dismissed. In the Disposal Type field, I saw a sentence that said "Permission to file SLP/Appeal-allowed".
Well, all is not lost, I thought...There is still a glimmer of hope in this matter...The Court Order had not yet been uploaded onto the website. I shut down the computer, had my dinner and went to sleep. The next morning, I took the train back to Bengaluru from New Delhi...
India has a population of 1.4 billion people with at least 70% belonging to the middle and lower classes. That would make nearly a billion Indians who are affected by ganja and charas prohibition. Yet, there appears to be no voices being raised against this issue in the judiciary at the highest levels, or at any levels for that matter. If a dozen people filed writ petitions, or a few dozens of the so-called intellectual community - including advocates, activists, and those who claim to represent the poor and deprived classes of India - filed public interest litigations (PILs), the chances of voices being heard in the Supreme Court would increase greatly. The support for the LGBTQ+ movement has been much more active, especially among the upper classes and castes, than support for the ganja and charas legalization movement which affects a much larger number of people in India. But then, the upper classes and castes get their ganja and charas anyway, being able to afford the high costs in the black market. Uruguay, Canada, Luxembourg, Malta, South Africa and Germany have legalized ganja and charas for adult use. The US - with 24 states having adult recreational ganja and charas legalized - is on the cusp of federal legalization. India - the land of Siva and ganja - with the greatest number of people who are affected by ganja and charas prohibition - especially the poorest - and probably the oldest culture of cannabis usage, is sleeping while the upper classes and castes continue the domination that they secured with the help of the British, sitting at the top of all levels of power. The late K.S. Puttanaswamy took up the Right to Privacy case regarding Aadhar related controversies, after he had retired as a sitting judge in the Supreme Court. This is considered one of the landmark cases in the Supreme Court, as is the Kesavananda case regarding the basic structure of the Constitution. The ganja and charas legalization case easily affects about a billion Indians. It has widespread benefits for agriculture, medicine, industry, public health, combating climate change, reducing the wealth gap, addressing hunger and poverty, and so many other issues that plague India today and put it at the bottom of multiple global indices that measure the state of the human condition. It is easily the biggest case put before the Supreme Court of India, a landmark case like no other in the history of the Supreme Court of India. The case will have widespread positive impact across the world given India's cannabis heritage and culture, providing impetus for many nations - especially the poorer nations of the world in Africa and Asia - to push for cannabis legalization...Maybe a retired judge - like Aniruddha Bose who has now retired from the Supreme Court - may consider taking it up...
I have included the Writ Petition Diary No. 23878 of 2023 here, along with the Court Order. My aim is that the material available here can be used by persons who are serious about the issue of ganja and charas prohibition. I hope that it generates multiple writ petitions, PILs, and so on, addressed to both the judiciary and legislature, at both the central and state levels. I believe that the same material can be used by persons in other countries as well, with suitable modifications, to pressurize their own governments and judiciary to revoke the cannabis prohibition that is easily the biggest crime against humanity and nature in the history of mankind, with legalization having positive impacts as significant as halting the progress of climate change related destruction - a problem for which our so-called leaders has absolutely no answer so far...
In the next part, I will describe the next steps that took place, but this was the first step at the Supreme Court of India from my side to draw attention of the apex judiciary on this matter...
CIVIL WRIT (MANDAMUS) PETITION NO.23878/2023
PETITION UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA FOR ISSUANCE OF A MANDAMUS WRIT IN THE NATURE OF GANJA AND CHARAS LEGALIZATION UNDER ARTICLES 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46 and 47 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA
Petitioner: Koshy T. Abraham
Vs
Respondent: Union of India, Through Secretary (Revenue),
Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance
128 A, North Block, New Delhi-110001
Ph: 011–23092653, 011-2309211
Email: rsecy@nic.in
(Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution of India)
SYNOPSIS AND LIST OF DATES
SYNOPSIS
1. The flowers of the cannabis plant, ganja, and the resin obtained from the flowers, charas, were, until the end of the 19th century, among India's foremost medicines, intoxicants, entheogens and agricultural crops.
2. Ganja and charas have been in use in India for thousands of years, forming an intrinsic part of India's culture, religion, tradition, medicine, economic and social life.
3. Until the end of the 19th century ganja was: widely cultivated throughout India, especially by India's poorest farmers, forming a valuable source of income; used as medicine by men, women and children of all ages to treat a wide range of diseases, as well as used a tonic; used as a safe intoxicant by men and women of all classes and castes; used in the spiritual practices of religious mendicants across nearly all of India's religions; used widely, forming an essential part of social life, and a key part of most Indian festivals; the elixir of especially India's poorest persons, including its religious mendicants, enabling them to face and endure the harsh conditions, and alleviate the sufferings, of their day-to-day lives; used as nutrition and medicine for livestock including cattle, sheep and goats, besides other domesticated animals, such as horses and elephants.
4. In the second half of the 19th century the British gradually regulated and prohibited ganja and charas, with the aim of increasing their revenues from tobacco, western alcohol, opium and western pharmaceutical drugs - all products owned by the ruling elites and wealthy businessmen from the western world. The British, along with India's elites – the ruling classes, upper classes, upper castes, religious orthodoxy - also sought to establish their preferred culture and traditions over India through the prohibition of ganja and charas.
5. After Indian independence, the Indian government continued the British policies, and eventually completely prohibited the cultivation, possession, trade, and consumption of ganja and charas with the introduction of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985.
6. The prohibition of ganja and charas goes against the individual's fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46, 47 of the Constitution of India
7. The prohibition of ganja and charas directly affects the petitioner, as it prevents the petitioner from accessing one of India's foremost natural medicines, intoxicants and entheogens, forcing the petitioner to, instead, consume harmful and expensive alternatives sanctioned by the state - such as alcohol, tobacco, and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. This goes directly against the petitioner's right to equality, liberty, health and religious freedoms.
8. The prohibition of ganja and charas prevents the petitioner from: cultivating ganja and producing charas; possessing desired quantities of ganja and charas for personal use or to share with those whom he wishes to; consuming ganja and charas; drawing income from the commercial trade of ganja and charas, to supplement his meagre income, if he so desires.
9. The prohibition of ganja and charas prevents the petitioner from choosing his preferred method of natural medicine for alleviating pain, fatigue, stress, combating infectious diseases and fevers, and enduring the challenging conditions of life on Earth today. Most importantly, the prohibition of ganja and charas prevents the petitioner from following his desire of simple, minimalistic, natural living and following the spiritual practices of: shunning the procurement of material wealth and power; concentration; meditation; stilling the fluctuations of the mind; and focus on the eternal spirit.
10.The prohibition of ganja and charas, affects not just the petitioner, but hundreds of millions of Indians like him - especially those from the poorest sections of society, those from indigenous communities, those from lower classes and castes, those from minority communities, those suffering from various illnesses and diseases - for which ganja and charas are highly effective, potentially affordable and potentially easily accessible universal medicine.
11.The prohibition of ganja and charas sees discriminatory unjust law enforcement action against the weakest sections of Indian society; whereas the elites access, procure and consume ganja and charas with impunity - being able to afford the exorbitant costs of the herb widely available through the black market - and remain immune to legal action through their material wealth and power.
12.Today, a number of nations that were instrumental in the global prohibition of ganja and charas, have taken significant steps towards the reintroduction of ganja and charas in their societies as medicine, intoxicant and as a key strategy for sustainable economics in the face of global climate change. India, the land of Siva and ganja, however continues to inflict untold suffering on its most vulnerable people through the prohibition of ganja and charas.
13.The petitioner has filed this mandamus writ petition, seeking that the Supreme Court of India issue a writ that the prohibition of ganja and charas is illegal, and that it goes against the fundamental rights of the Individual as laid down in Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46, 47 of the Constitution of India.
14.Even though the petitioner could file this petition as a public interest litigation - as it affects hundreds of millions of Indians, especially the most poor and vulnerable - the petitioner chooses to file it as a mandamus writ petition, as the prohibition of ganja and charas directly affects the petitioner, violating his fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46 and 47 of the Constitution of India.
15.The petitioner seeks to appear in court in person, in this regard, rather than employ an advocate to represent him, as this petition is of vital importance to his personal well-being, and a personal matter that he does not wish to entrust to a third person.
List of dates
1850 Total prohibition of ganja by British administration in Burma (now Myanmar)
1878 Bengal Excise Act, VII of 1878 in effect in Bengal and Assam
1878 Bombay Excise Act V of 1878
1881 Excise Act XXII of 1881 in effect in the North Western and Central Provinces, as well as the Punjab
1886 Madras Abkari Act (1 of 1886)
1893 Government Resolution to set up Indian Hemp Drugs Commission to study feasibility of ganja prohibition across India
1894-95 Study and report by Indian Hemp Drugs Commission
1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Substances of the UN includes ganja and charas forming basis of all ganja and charas prohibition laws world wide
1985 Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropics Substances(NDPS) Act of 1985 includes ganja and charas bringing complete prohibition in India
To
Hon'ble The Chief Justice of India and His Companion Judges of the Supreme Court of India.
The Writ Petition of the Petitioner abovenamed, most respectfully showeth:
1. Facts of the case
Background
Many visitors to India over the centuries, as travelers or invaders, have recorded the usage of the cannabis plant across the length and breadth of the country. The plant was an integral part of Indian society from time immemorial, and its usage encompassed all classes of society. The plant had vast medical and religious significance, besides being the most popular recreational drug in Indian society. The plant was used by large proportions of Indian society - primarily by the working classes engaged in hard physical labour, religious mendicants and the very poor - as well as some sections of the elite classes of society. Across the entire country, farmers cultivated the plant freely, people grew the plant at homes and private gardens, and the plant grew abundantly in public spaces and wild stretches of land. Studies done, as a part of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission's work in 1894-1895, show that the wild ancestral land races of the plant grew mostly in the Himalayan regions, while in pretty much the rest of the country the plant had been cultivated by humans from as long back as we can see. The cannabis plant formed the natural recreational staple of Indian drugs - along with toddy and fermented alcoholic drinks - for thousands of years. It would be no hollow claim to say that India was the home of cannabis until the 19th century.
The British, when they occupied India, focused their attention on the cannabis plant in the 19th century. Initially, it was with the intent of taxing the plant and controlling its cultivation, so that it formed an additional revenue stream for the government. Gradually, however, the British started regarding cannabis - due to its widespread popularity, abundance of growth, very low prices, and ease of access - as a threat to the drugs that brought the British Empire its maximum revenues: opium, tobacco and western alcohol. At the time of setting up a commission, in 1893, to study - the extent of cannabis usage; the feasibility of controlling it; and the feasibility of generating revenue from it - India was an amalgamation of various territories, provinces and states. Some were under British rule, such as the Bengal, Bombay, Madras and Mysore presidencies. Others were either tributary or independent states and were called as such. There were groups of states called the Native States, Feudatory States, Tributary States, Hill States, Central Provinces and Northwestern Provinces. Each of the non-British ruled entities had their own individual approaches to the cannabis plant, predominantly a hands-off approach, given the intrinsic connections of cannabis to Indian society and culture. The British territories had already, by the 1850s, started tightening control over cannabis through vast reductions in cultivated areas, cultivation under license, government warehouses, retail tax, etc. The Bengal Excise Act, VII of 1878, which was in effect in Bengal and Assam, the Madras Abkari Act (1 of 1886) and the Bombay Excise Act V of 1878 were all governed by one goal when it came to cannabis, specifically ganja and charas - that of maximum revenue and minimum consumption. Other regional entities had either adopted similar regulations under British influence; or the ideal natural, social evolutionary stable state of no controls on the plant. The assorted set of rules in different regions, with regard to cannabis, was believed by the British to be a drain on revenue, especially with the free movement of cannabis into regulated British territories from unregulated non-British territories.
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission was set up in 1893 by the British Empire with the primary aims of: “ enquiring into the cultivation of the hemp plant in Bengal, the preparation of drugs from it, the trade in those drugs, the effect of their consumption upon the social and moral condition of the people, and the desirability of prohibiting the growth of the plant and the sale of ganja and allied drugs.” It also aimed at formulating uniform rules for cannabis cultivation and usage, so that the government could maximize taxation and revenue from the plant and its derivative products - mainly ganja and charas – while at the same time reducing the extent of cultivation and consumption. The effect of prohibition on the people, in terms of discontent and resort to more deleterious drugs was also to be considered. Even through Bengal was the initial focus, it was decided to study the entire country in this regard. Having successfully implemented total cannabis prohibition in Burma (now Myanmar) to ease the way for opium, the British had decided to look at India, starting with Bengal. The Commission's report is the earliest known documented study on the usage of the cannabis plant in societies anywhere in the world. It still ranks as one of the most, if not the most, detailed studies ever done on this subject and was free from many of the biases of subsequent studies, due to the pervasiveness and normality of cannabis usage at the time in India which was, at that point in time, the land of ganja. The output of the study went on to form the basis for policies regarding cannabis in other British colonies, and eventually played a key part in the formulation of today's global cannabis laws. The Commission's report reveal many findings, including the following:
- Ganja and charas were primarily smoked by men, whereas women mostly consumed cannabis as bhang for intoxication or medicine. Children were mostly given cannabis as medicine, otherwise it was generally not used by children. Women appear to have embraced ganja or bhang as they grew older, rather than in their younger years when they were more tightly reined in by the patriarchal societies of the country. It was common for men to gather in social settings and consume ganja at the end of the day, as they relaxed and socialized, much like the pubs and drinking houses we find in Europe. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics
- The plant was widely revered and had great religious significance across religious groups, including the Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists and indigenous tribal religions. Its religious, cultural and social usage went far back in time. Religious mendicants of all religions used ganja to fortify themselves against the harsh and adverse conditions of their chosen lives and to focus their minds steadfastly on their spiritual goals. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb
- Indian medical practitioners used the cannabis plant for treating a wide range of diseases and the plant formed a key part of traditional Indian medicine, finding mention in a variety of ancient medical texts. It was prescribed as medicine by native physicians for all ages, across all genders, and across all social and economic groups. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals
- It was found that primary users were from the working classes, lower classes, lower castes, indigenous communities, and religious mendicants. The consumers of ganja were the poorest sections and most vulnerable sections of society, who used it as medicine, intoxicant and spiritual aid. Considering that a vast majority of Indian society consisted, then and even now, of these sections of society, the possibility of the extent of usage being very large cannot be ruled out. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja
- There existed a general ignorance and dislike of ganja and its users among non-users, who essentially formed the ruling classes, upper classes and upper castes. The intolerance of ganja appears to have developed primarily because of its association with the lower classes and castes, whereas the intolerance of charas appears to have arisen from its association with cultures from the northwestern regions of India. Strangely, most persons who opposed ganja and charas, seemed to have no such hostility towards bhang. This appears to have been driven by the perception that bhang was consumed by the upper classes, whereas ganja and charas was used by the lower classes and foreigners. This is completely absurd considering that ganja, charas and bhang are the flowers, resin and leaves of the same plant. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition
- The Indian elite ruling upper classes and castes, enamored by the British ways of life, sought to depict ganja and charas as harmful, causing dysentery, mental illnesses and crime. The Hemp Commission studied each of these areas and came to the conclusion that the moderate use of the plant did not cause any of the above stated harms to society - a fact widely corroborated by today's scientific studies in places that have recently legalized cannabis. Excessive use (a term that was mostly subjective) was sometimes associated with the above harms but the percentage of excessive users were found to be a very minuscule fraction of overall users i.e. 5%, and these were largely religious mendicants who were found to be in excellent physical and mental health despite the adverse conditions that they lived in. Even among excessive users, it was not possible to clearly establish that cannabis - and not some pre-existing biological, social or environmental factor - was the cause for poor health. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P18: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Exploring the Cannabis Causes Crime Myth; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
- In spite of the findings of the Commission contradicting the supposed harms of cannabis, the Commission chose to state that it is possible excessive usage of the plant could cause physical and mental illnesses. This note of caution, with regard to a plant that was intrinsic to Indian society, served to add fuel to the propaganda by India's British rulers and upper classes that ganja and charas were, in general, harmful. It also laid the foundation for the subsequent global war on cannabis and its users and the unimaginable damage unleashed, that continues unabated even today. Erroneous reports regarding the harms of cannabis usage in India - especially its linkage with insanity - were used as evidence to push through prohibition of the cannabis plant in British colonies in Trinidad, Greece and Egypt in the 19th century and, subsequently, in Canada and the United States by the 1920s. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth
- The US finally prohibited cannabis in the 1930s through the Marihuana Act of 1937, driven by a similar desire to protect the emerging industries that stood to gain from cannabis prohibition and who brought far greater revenue to the state. Similar to the suppression of India's lower classes and castes, the US prohibition was also aimed at dominance over its Native American communities, Hispanics and Blacks, who were viewed as threats to the elite classes. The US used its political power in the United Nations to bring about cannabis prohibition worldwide through the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs. This global attack on cannabis was backed in no small measure by the opium, alcohol, paper, pharmaceutical, medical, tobacco and petrochemical industries. These industries today constitute the largest, most powerful industries in the world, accounting for the wealth of the global elites and the destruction of the planet and nature by humans.
- By the 20th century, the anti-ganja propaganda of the elites had so effectively influenced the mindset of the majority of Indian society, that India's legal cannabis usage survived on life support till 1985, when the country formally included the plant in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985, which meant that the fate of the plant and its users were completely sealed. For more information, please see ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
When the resolution setting up the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission was passed, it was clear that the British sponsors did not just want ganja regulated, they wanted it completely prohibited, not just in Bengal but across the entire country. The extract from the resolution reads as follows:
“No. 2792-Ex., dated 3rd July 1893. Resolution by the Government of India, Finance and Commerce Department.
READ— Despatch from Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No. 36 (Revenue), dated 16th March 1893, forwarding a copy of a question asked in the House of Commons, and of the answer given thereto by the Under-Secretary of State, regarding the appointment of a Commission to enquire into the production and consumption of hemp drugs in India. Read also— Correspondence ending with Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 99 (Revenue), dated 20th October 1892, regarding the consumption of ganja in India.
RESOLUTION.—In the despatch recited in the preamble, Her Majesty's Secretary of State informed the Government of India that, in answer to a question put in the House of Commons, he had expressed his willingness to request the Government of India to appoint a Commission to enquire into the cultivation of the hemp plant in Bengal, the preparation of drugs from it, the trade in those drugs, the effect of their consumption upon the social and moral condition of the people, and the desirability of prohibiting the growth of the plant and the sale of ganja and allied drugs. In accordance with the announcement thus made, Lord Kimberley requested the Government of India to appoint a Commission for the purposes stated, and to issue such instructions as would ensure that the enquiry should be thorough and complete.
His Lordship is of opinion that the investigation can hardly be confined to Bengal, but should extend to the whole of India, and that the Commission should be instructed to ascertain to what extent the existence of the hemp plant all over India affects the practical difficulty of checking or stopping the consumption of ganja, as distinguished from other narcotic drugs prepared from the hemp plant, and whether there is ground for the statement that bhang is less injurious than ganja to consumers.”
For more information regarding the Government Resolution constituting the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, and the aims of the same, please see ANNEXURE P23: Government Resolution Appointing the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1894-95
Concluding its report, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1894-95 stated that 'Total prohibition of the cultivation of the hemp plant for narcotics, and the manufacture, sale or use of the drugs from it is neither necessary nor expedient in consideration of their ascertained effects, of the prevalence of the habit of using them, of the social and religious feeling on the subject, and of the possibility of its driving the consumers to have recourse to other stimulants or narcotics which may be more deleterious (Chapter XIV, paragraph 553 to 585)'
Despite concluding that total prohibition was not advisable, unnecessary and unwise - considering that cannabis was an integral part of Indian society - the Commission still chose to make recommendations that severely interfered with personal freedoms through coercive policies. This may have come about because the Commission and its British sponsors realized, as a result of its study, that even though a significant proportion of India's population were associated with cannabis - the poorest sections of society, the working classes, the religious mendicants, and the persons suffering from various illnesses – they were not likely to pose a political threat despite widespread discontentment because they lacked the political influence to cause significant trouble. The Indian elites, ruling classes, upper classes and upper castes were firmly on the side of the British, and could be fully relied on to back the British in whatever coercive measures it took regarding ganja and charas. Thus, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission made the following recommendations in its Report:
- adequate taxation (Chapter XIV, paragraph 587)
- prohibiting cultivation, except under license, and centralizing cultivation
- (Chapter XIV paragraph 636 and 677)
- limiting the number of shops (Chapter XIV paragraph 637)
- limiting the extent of legal possession (Chapter XIV, paragraph 689 and 690)
No other rulers or governments had in the past imposed this level of curbs on the popular native intoxicants available to people. Chapter VII of Manusmriti which numerated the different sources of revenue that the sovereigns of the country taxed did not mention any intoxicants. Even Aurangzeb, the ruler that many Indians rate as the most tyrannical in the country's history, was against curbs on native intoxicants. Aurangzeb's grandson is said to have proposed tax on palm juice, presumably toddy, in Bengal, to which Aurangzeb is said to have replied “Though the taxation of the palm may lead to the collection of revenue, yet it is impossible for me to sanction it. I cannot understand what dishonest mufti declared it legal to do so. You must know that such ill advisors are enemies of this and the next world. You should thank Almighty who has put you in possession of three provinces which are full in wealth, and which fill our coffers with so much revenue, and in which everything is so abundant and cheap. You should know as well that the good-will of the subjects is the only wealth for this world and the next.” - (Letter No. 90 mentioned in the Note of Dissent at the end of Vol 1, Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report)
Current Situation
The current situation in India has gone far beyond even the worst case scenarios visualized by both the proponents and opponents of cannabis taxation and prohibition 150 years ago.
Social situation
The primary consumers of the cannabis plant in the past - the poorest sections of society, the minorities, the indigenous communities, the farming and labouring classes - have now resorted to spurious alcohol, tobacco, synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, and even more dangerous substances like sniffing glue to replace cannabis as a stimulant, intoxicant, relaxant and pain relieving option. Many among the poorer classes, minorities and indigenous communities who have tried to access cannabis have been jailed, beaten up or killed for their troubles. The upper classes of society have not fared much better either, in the absence of cannabis. Potent drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, abuse of synthetic prescription medicine, alcohol, etc., have become the alternatives for them. These upper classes, however, enjoy immunity against legal action through their economic and social status but in terms of health, they have suffered no less than any other section of society. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), every year in India 2.6 lakh people die due to alcohol and 1 crore people die due to tobacco. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, states - 'Of the 23 million past-year opioid users, roughly one third, or 7.7 million people, suffer from opioid use disorders. Compared with earlier estimates from a survey carried out in 2004, overall opioid use in India is estimated to have increased fivefold.' Yet Indian society, by and large, views the cannabis plant as the worst evil, and most people will rate it as the most dangerous drug today, so effective has the vilification of the plant been.
Economic situation
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1894-95, reported that “Ganja ranks as one of the superior crops.” Poor farmers, who once saw the cannabis plant as an important agricultural crop, now find their cannabis mindlessly destroyed by law enforcement, and find themselves in jail, if they dare to cultivate the crop. The black market, in the meantime, makes huge profits through the illegal cultivation and sale of the plant. The money ends up in the pockets of organized crime, who - working hand in hand with politicians and law enforcement - use it to fund bigger and more dangerous ventures like extortion, human trafficking, money laundering, arms trade and smuggling of heroin. The revenue that should have gone into the pockets of farmers, traders and into public coffers now flows into the black market and the pockets of criminals. According to the National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB), total quantity of cannabis seized in 2017 was 1233707.8 kg ganja, 9871.9 kg bhang, 209.2 kg hashish and 2190.3 kg charas. The report erroneously reports the same substance, cannabis resin, under two heads - charas and hashish, showing the level of ignorance that exists in this country, even among law and drug enforcement. Hardly any legal cannabis business exists in the country today, even though the plant is said to have a vast variety of applications - including in the areas of medicine, wellness, nutrition, paper, textiles, fibers, construction, bio-degradable plastics, etc. The 1961 Single Convention Treat on Narcotic Substances specifically states that the Treaty does not apply to cannabis for industrial or horticultural purposes, but the Indian government has more or less banned cannabis for all purposes, making it impossible for Indian industries to use this versatile plant.
Countries like China, France and the US use cannabis for a variety of industrial purposes, helping them to contain their carbon footprints and boost their economies. In the US, despite cannabis (as ganja or charas) being federally illegal, the projected size of the cannabis industry for 2024 is $100 billion. In the US, the cannabis industry was one of the biggest employers in the past few years. Even when cannabis was regulated in India in the 1870s, it accounted for nearly 20% of state revenue for Bengal. On the other hand, the cost of maintaining the status quo of keeping the plant illegal uses up vast amounts of law enforcement, prison and judiciary resources, not to mention the loss of human capital, in terms of persons facing legal action and confinement. Farmers face tremendous stress due to failed unsustainable crops (like paddy, sugarcane or cotton), unmanageable loans and increased cost of cultivation. The country goes through a prolonged economic slow down, increasing fiscal deficits and not enough revenue to fund key areas like healthcare, agriculture and education. Many economically and environmentally unsustainable industries, that have thrived in the absence of cannabis - such as the petrochemical and synthetic pharmaceutical industries, threaten the future of the country and planet. The equity gap between the rich and the poor increases every day. The employment options for India's burgeoning young adult population diminishes every day.
Environmental situation
The cannabis plant is one of the most environmentally sustainable plants with the ability to grow in diverse conditions, which is why it was cultivated across the length and breadth of India in the past. Cannabis sequesters more carbon than an equivalent area of tropical forest, while increasing soil fertility and removing toxins from it. Tobacco on the other hand - one of the most popular recreational drugs and favored crops of the government today - destroys the soil wherever it grows. In the field of agriculture, cannabis requires about 90 liters of water to produce 1 kg of hemp fiber, whereas cotton requires about 1559 liters of water to produce 1 kg of cotton. The plant provides valuable nutrition to not just humans but also other animals, birds and insects. It has been found that bee and bird populations flourish in areas where cannabis is cultivated, vastly enhancing the process of cross-pollination and addressing the issues of bee and bird population collapses. Governments have boosted the growth of unsustainable crops like paddy, wheat, sugarcane and palm oil instead through huge subsidies, minimum support prices and loans, wrecking havoc with the environment. Chemical pesticides and fertilizer have been stuffed down the farmers throats through subsidies and loans, and now saturate the soil making much of India's agricultural land toxic and barren. Synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that damage the environment through manufacture, usage and disposal proliferate the country. Cannabis, either as the medicinal refreshing bhang drink, thandai, or smoked was frequently used in the summer months to counter the effect of heat among the population in India's past. Today, as the country goes through rapidly escalating heat stress, it has been replaced by aerated sugar-based beverages manufactured by multinational companies that consume huge quantities of resources in its manufacture, and render the Indian population obese and diabetic.
The systematic elimination of cannabis has resulted in: the advent of petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastics; synthetic petrochemical-based materials for construction, textiles, automobile bodies; chemical fertilizers and pesticides; synthetic pharmaceutical medicine; and the cutting down of vast areas of ancient forests to provide wood pulp for paper; alcohol and tobacco for intoxication and recreation - to name just a few effects on the environment of prohibiting the plant. All these industries are now the biggest and most powerful in the world. They heavily influence all decisions on cannabis and mount tremendous pressure on the government to keep cannabis prohibited, while funding false information that keeps the public convinced that the plant must remain so. At a time when all options to mitigate climate change must be urgently pursued, India's leaders completely ignore the one plant that could provide the path forward for sustainable development. Instead, they look to embrace and increase the dependency on the very industries that have pushed the world to the brink – fossil fuels, petrochemicals and synthetic pharmaceuticals.
Medical situation
Today, in addition to the diseases that existed 150 years ago - such as malaria, cholera, dysentery and tuberculosis - there has been a vast surge in lifestyle related diseases - such as diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, cancer, etc. There has also been a surge in diseases due to the deteriorating environment such as COPD, liver diseases, renal diseases, PTSD, anxiety, etc. 96 lakh people were projected to die due to cancer in 2018, according to Down to Earth magazine. The number of persons with heart disease was 5.45 crore, and with diabetes was 6.5 crore, according to the magazine. While the number of diseases and the persons suffering from them have greatly increased, so too have the medications required for treating these diseases, the cost of medicines and the cost of health care. Where once medicines were plant based, affordable, generic, safe and accessible, today to treat a single ailment requires a cocktail of synthetic pharmaceutical medicines that are expensive, synthetic, inaccessible and have dangerous side effects. Most persons in India struggle to find medicine for their ailments and the government expenditure on health care is far below what is required. 'The Union health ministry reveals that medicines are the biggest financial burden on Indian households. Of more than three lakh crore rupees that households spent on health in 2014-15, around 43 per cent of the total out-of-pocket spending (OOP) went in buying medicines.' says Down to Earth Magazine. That would make the money spent on medicines in that year at Rs 1.29 lakh crores. While 43% of out-of-pocket expenditure may be something that India's rich and middle classes can endure, for the vast majority of India's population who live below the poverty line, this is as good as a death warrant.
Many European and North American countries have legalized the medical use of cannabis for their populations. In the US, cannabis can now be prescribed as treatment for more than 30 medical conditions, and has been legalized for medical use in 38 states, at the time of writing. India however remains completely oblivious to this fact. The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, stated in its report that "Cannabis indica must be looked upon as one of the most important drugs of Indian Materia Medica." Cannabis was widely used for men, women and children of all ages. In another place, the Commission states that "Out of a total of 1,193 European and Native witnesses before the Commission, little less than two-thirds refer to the use of hemp drugs by the Vedanti and Yunani schools of native physicians and native doctors generally...If the number of witnesses who speak of this use in each province may be taken as approximately indicating its extent, then it would appear that the medicinal use is well known throughout India." In a country, where cannabis as plant medicine, could provide affordable, universal and accessible health care to almost the entire population with home growing legalized, the public remain sold on the false promises of the synthetic pharmaceutical industry and the medical industry working closely together with the government to eliminate plant medicine, especially cannabis.
Legal situation
The country today employs vast amounts of law enforcement resources - including police, excise, judiciary, informants and prisons - to curb the cannabis market and to enforce prohibition. According to the NCRB, under the Excise Act there appears to be 206,069 cases registered in 2015, 237,026 cases registered in 2016 and 276,168 cases registered in 2017 though it is not clear how many of these were related specifically to cannabis. Under the NDPS Act, 50,796 in 2015, 49,256 in 2016 and 63,800 in 2017. Again its is not clear how many of these were related specifically to cannabis. A total of 9,637 convicts were lodged in various jails of the country for committing offenses under Liquor & Narcotics Drugs-related acts under Special and Local Laws (SLL) as on 31st December, 2017. Of these 164 were under the Prohibition Act, 739 under the Excise Act and 8734 under NDPS Act. A total of 37,135 undertrials were lodged in various jails of the country for committing offenses relating to Liquor & Narcotics Drugs-related acts under Special and Local Laws (SLL) as on 31st December, 2017. It can be argued that these numbers do not differentiate between cannabis related figures and those of alcohol and other psychotropic substances. It can also be argued that the prohibition of cannabis has contributed to the increase in numbers for the other substances so that it will not be completely wrong to use these figures as an indicator of the effects of cannabis prohibition.
Since 2019, the number of cases filed under the NDPS Act have risen. The government continues to use cannabis prohibition as a means to target its critics, to extort money and to keep indigenous communities and minorities subdued. The war on cannabis is a war on the people all over the world, including in India. For every case that is documented in the official statistics, there are many times more that go unreported, because the well-to-do sections of the public pays law enforcement the extortion amount to be free of this despicable legal trap. To think that the plant revered as the great god Siva's herb is prohibited, and its users punished, goes to show the level of degradation of the Indian psyche and its complete capitulation to the manipulative forces that destroy individual freedoms and the planet. Cannabis prohibition is a form of slavery, where the people, especially the poor, minorities, indigenous communities and labouring classes are kept chained to the systems created by the elites, the systems of control over nature through synthetic means - such as petrochemicals, synthetic pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tobacco and illegal synthetic drugs. Looking at Indian society from a cannabis perspective, India never managed to shake off its rulers. It only replaced its colonial masters with the same ruling and upper classes who worked with the British to bring about cannabis prohibition. These ruling and upper classes continue to faithfully do the bidding of the industries opposed to cannabis created by the colonial rulers who run the world through these industries today.
When the British attempted to regulate cannabis across India, it resulted in rampant smuggling across borders from places with lesser regulation. Despite deploying large numbers of administrators, law enforcement and excise officials, and employing coercive methods – such as reduced cultivation areas, cultivation under license, retail permits, etc. - smuggling continued on a large scale. Today, we see that the situation has hardly changed. In fact, it has worsened. Cannabis continues to flow easily across the country, through the black market, despite a special NDPS Act. Law, drug enforcement and excise agencies spend huge resources, as do the judiciary and prisons, to try and curb a herb that still continues to be used by large sections of the population. The prohibition of cannabis has led to the demand for even more dangerous, and easily concealable drugs like opioids, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and novel psychotropic substances (NPS). All these cater to the rich and elite classes of society and are managed by an increasingly sophisticated black market, and powerful international drug cartels that employ advanced technologies like the dark net, cryptocurrency, drones and sophisticated GPS-based tracking mechanisms to move consignments with ease. This happens not just within the country, but flows between India and all major drug producer and consumer markets worldwide.
Cannabis biodiversity situation
The cannabis plant is known to evolve according to local environmental conditions such as soil, water, sunshine, climate, etc. Having existed in India for hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of years, it is very likely that at one point there may have been hundreds of varieties of the cannabis plant, each with its distinct medicinal and economic properties. The Hemp Drugs Commission report of 1894 speaks about varieties specific to local geographical regions, each with its own distinct quality, such as - Amballa charas, Sholapur ganja, Amritsar bhara, Ahmednugger ganja, Delhi District charas, Bijapur mashak, Bombay charas, Madras local market ganja, Kumaon (wild) bhang, Khandesh bhang, Gurhwal, Nepal, Rajshahi, Assam, Satara (Shahjahani), Baluchar, Garjhat, Pathar, Mahadev, etc. Over the last 150 years, the prohibition of the plant and the indiscriminate destruction of it means that many precious varieties may have gone extinct. Scientists world wide are today just starting to understand the interactions of the cannabis plant with human and animal physiology, as well as its potential medical and commercial uses. In India, however, we remain clueless as to the varieties of cannabis that exist here, as well as their medical and commercial properties. Research on the plant is virtually non-existent, as is any sort of legal mechanism to protect the different varieties of the plant. The large scale indiscriminate destruction of the plant continues unabated however.
Political situation
There exist no policies for the protection of the cannabis plant and its users. The inclusion of cannabis in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 meant that the once revered plant, and its users, face an unprecedented war that has raged for decades now. Whereas the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report of 1894 very clearly stated that prohibition must not be implemented, rather a system of taxation and controls should be put in place with minimal government intervention thereafter - given the traditional, social, religious, medical significance and widespread usage of the plant - what has happened today is that every attempt has been made completely suppress and eliminate the plant and coerce and harass its users.
Hardly any policy maker shows the slightest interest in correcting these wrongs, or in formulating policies that would at least bring the situation back to where it was 150 yeas ago, let alone a 1000 years ago, in spite of all the evidence available within the country itself. The Indian government receives its primary funding, through channels such as non-transparent electoral bonds, from the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, alcohol and tobacco lobbies.
Globally many countries that introduced prohibition are starting to take a relook at their approaches, with Canada and Uruguay having legalized its recreational use, along with 23 US states, at the time of this writing. More US states, and countries like Mexico and South Africa appear poised to legalize its recreational use. In Mexico and South Africa, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, respectively, ruled a few years back that cannabis prohibition is against the fundamental rights of an individual. But lawmakers in these two countries continue to dither in framing policies that would mean access for all to cannabis. It is clearly the links that lawmakers in these countries have with the drug cartels and industries opposed to cannabis legalization that has resulted in this prolonged delay in framing policies, as is also the case with the federal US which also has powerful strong anti-cannabis lobbies working against federal legalization. More than two dozen countries worldwide, especially in Europe, permit the medical use of cannabis. India, the land of ganja - from which the first detailed study on cannabis usage emerged, along with the myths and propaganda that formed the basis for subsequent global policies - continues to slumber due to the apathy of its policy makers and the ignorance of its people, while the country suffers.
Cost of Current Situation
In trying to arrive at the costs that the country is incurring due to the ongoing prohibition of cannabis I have tried to cover a few areas in a very simplistic fashion. The areas, and the costs associated, are by no means comprehensive but more in the nature of a 'thumb in the air' estimate. Some areas, I think, cannot even be costed such as - the environmental costs of cannabis prohibition and the rise, in its absence, of petrochemical based industries and synthetic pharmaceutical industries, as well as the costs associated with the loss of cannabis plant diversity due to the indiscriminate extirpation, and possible extinction, of many unknown varieties of the plant. So, I will look to mainly associate simplistic economic, social, medical and legal costs that the nation is incurring due to cannabis prohibition. These, as I stated above, are by no means comprehensive. A better equipped set of individuals and methodologies should provide a clearer picture.
Social Costs
As social costs, I will take the deaths due to alcohol and tobacco and try to associate costs with them. There are many, many other social costs - including deaths due to the misuse of synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and abuse of illegal synthetic drugs - but I am choosing the two main legal drugs that are currently available in Indian society, that serve for many as the only options, in the absence of cannabis. Not only has the government prohibited cannabis but it, along with the alcohol and tobacco industry, have sought to actively convert cannabis users to alcohol and tobacco over the last 150 years. To arrive at a social cost, a cost has to be associated with human life in India and a human being has to be viewed as capital i.e. human capital.
According to Wikipedia 'The value of life is an economic value used to quantify the benefit of avoiding a fatality.' It varies in different parts of the world ranging from $20,000 in Turkey to more than $9 million in the US. It also varies according to the method used for calculation. Considering that we are closer to Turkey than to the US, in terms of the value we associate for human life in India, I will arbitrarily fix a cost of $20,000 for an Indian life for want of a better option currently. Translating that into Indian currency at exchange rates roughly equivalent to $1=Rs 80, that would mean the value of an Indian life is 80 x 20,000 = Rs 16,00,000 or Rs. 16 lakhs per life.
Considering that 2.6 lakh people die annually due to alcohol and 1 crore people die annually due to tobacco, a total of 1,02,60,000 people die every year from both. That puts a cost of approximately Rs 16.42 lakh crores due to alcohol and tobacco related deaths every year in India. Assuming that, at a conservative estimate, approximately 30% of these deaths could have been prevented had cannabis been available as an alternate recreational drug to alcohol and tobacco, we could attribute Rs 4.93 lakh crores to the social cost of cannabis prohibition.
Economic Costs
Again, this is difficult to arrive at in terms of lost revenue to farmers, wholesalers, retailers and taxation on the raw plant. The lost revenue from industries that could have used the cannabis plant to make various products is unknown. I have tried two approaches to try and get a rough estimate of the lost revenues and economic cost of cannabis prohibition.
Approach 1 – Comparing with the US cannabis industry
The US legal cannabis market - including both medical and recreational sales - was approximately $25 billion in 2022. The projected size of the US market for 2024 is $100 billion. Considering that nearly 27 US states have not legalized recreational cannabis yet, that about 12 US states are yet to legalize medical cannabis, that federal legalization with inter-state trade and banking is still not available, and also considering the industrial use of cannabis and its benefits to the economy, I would peg the total US market for all forms of cannabis – recreational, medical and industrial – in a completely legal scenario to be at about $250 billion. Given that India has a population roughly about 4 times the size of the US, that would mean approximately a $1000 billion Indian cannabis market. But then the cost of cannabis is very high in the US as compared to India. Assuming that cannabis in India costs one-fourth that of the US, we could possibly also arrive at a cannabis market of a similar $250 billion in India. India, being the land of cannabis, I expect the adoption of cannabis to be much greater than in the US where cannabis is still alien to the culture and social norms of the country. So, considering the greater adoption across the Indian population, in wide areas such as - recreational use, medicine, food, animal nutrition, textiles and fabrics, industrial applications etc. - I would, in a completely legalized scenario, estimate at least a $500 billion cannabis industry in India, or converting to Indian currency at the rate of Rs 80 to a US dollar, Rs 4 lakh crores.
Approach 2 – Looking at past data on cannabis revenue in Bengal
If we look at the revenue for the state of Bengal for the fiscal year 2021-2022, we find that it is around Rs. 75,000 crores. Considering that in 1892, ganja contributed around 20% of the state revenue in Bengal, that would amount to approximately Rs. 15,000 crores of additional state revenue for Bengal today. This is just revenue from licensing for wholesalers and retailers and duty on ganja for these vendors. If all factors were considered, I would place the total revenue possible for Bengal from ganja today at atleast Rs. 30,000 crores. Looking at India as a whole, the total tax collection for 2022-2023 is estimated at Rs 30 lakh crores. If 20% of revenue was to be got from ganja, that would mean an additional Rs 6 lakh crores revenue that the State is missing out on due to ganja prohibition, revenue that flows into the black market.
Please note that each of these approaches are not comprehensive. Many factors that would contribute to the increased economic revenues to the country have not been considered. For example, what would be the revenue in terms of improved soil regeneration and water saved due to cannabis cultivation instead of cotton, wheat and paddy? Or what would be the cost saved if India greatly slashes its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients import bills from China by introducing cannabis as universal medicine? Or what would be the cost saved if we replace nonbiodegradable petrochemical-based plastic with bio-degradable cannabis-based plastic? What would be the additional revenue that a farmer would earn and resulting state revenue from cannabis cultivation? What numbers of persons would gain employment in the $500 billion Indian cannabis industry and how would that translate to improved economics? There are numerous factors that we do not consider here, factors that today incur vast economic costs because we have prohibited cannabis.
Medical Costs
Diseases treated in 19th century India with cannabis
Cannabis was used to treat a wide range of communicable and non-communicable diseases in 19th century India. The range of diseases that it was used for are evidence of its medical potential. Even though questions posed by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, regarding the nature of diseases that cannabis treated, were pointed and led respondents down a certain path, and even though the majority of respondents were not medically qualified to respond to these questions, we find a mind-boggling range of diseases emerging. If the Commission had interviewed practitioners of natural medicine extensively, instead of the handful among largely western educated medical experts and medically unqualified persons, we may have got a better picture of the use of cannabis as medicine in 19th century India.
Communicable and infectious diseases
Among communicable and infectious diseases, we find the use of cannabis for remittent fever, ague, cholera, malaria, dysentery, syphilis, gonorrhea and hydrophobia, both as prophylactics and treatment. One witness states that "I have been informed of cases in which attacks of intermittent fevers (ague) have disappeared by a single process of smoking ganja—cases I mean of jungle fevers, in which the administration of even large doses of quinine have failed to ward off the attacks or in districts in which quinine is not obtainable." Numerous witnesses speak about the use of cannabis, in places of wet conditions and "bad water", by soldiers, mendicants, and the working and labouring classes, to keep infectious diseases and epidemics at bay. The fact that cannabis was analgesic, anti-inflammatory, sedative, diuretic, diaphoric, digestive, carminative, and disinfectant, among other things, may have contributed to its popularity in these places. Admitting that cannabis may be useful in treating or warding off infectious and epidemic diseases, the Indian Hemp Commission states that "There are also many cases where in tracts with a specially malarious climate, or in circumstances of hard work and exposure, the people attribute beneficial effects to the habitual moderate use of these drugs; and there is evidence to show that the popular impression may have some basis in fact."
Non-communicable diseases
The use of cannabis for the treatment of non-communicable diseases, involving numerous body systems, was even more extensive. The following kinds of noncommunicable diseases used cannabis for treatment and medicine:
- Diseases of the nervous system: headache; hysteria; neuralgia; sciatica; delirium tremens; muscular rheumatism; brain fever; paralysis; mania
- Diseases of respiratory organs: hay-fever; asthma; bronchitis; coughs; burning symptoms in phthisis
- Diseases of the digestive system: flatulence; diarrhea; dyspepsia; piles; prolapsus ani; to regulate salivation; for irritability of the bladder; piles; fistula of anus; dysentery; for stricture and ulcers; to moderate excessive secretion of bile
- Diseases of the urinary and reproductive system: diabetes; impotency; stricture; spermatorrhea; hydrocele; incontinence of urine; swellings of the testicles; orchitis; cramps; gleet; in impotency on account of its supposed aphrodisiac power; spermatorrhea; uterine affections such as loss of blood from uterus; dysmenorrhea; menorrhagia; strangulated hernia; gout; to restrain seminal secretions; and as a diuretic
- Skin diseases: scabies; guinea-worm; fresh wounds and sores; inflammations and cure of erysipelas; pruritus; and boils. An oil prepared from bhang and other ingredients is prescribed in white leprosy; for catarrhal and skin diseases
- As an antidote: against the poisons of fish and scorpions, poisoning by orpiment
- As a parasiticide: it was used for ear-aches caused by the presence of worms, guineaworms; applied to the head as a wash removes dandruff and vermin; and for treating tetanus. The ashes of burnt charas were said to be used for sciatica and worms.
- As an anodyne/analgesic: for allaying neuralgic pains; rheumatism and gout; to allay pain in the chest and sides; to relieve burning symptoms in phthisis; erysipelas; as an anesthetic in dentistry, etc.
- As an anti-bacterial in the treatment of tetanus
- Beside all the above, hemp drugs were also stated to be prescribed in diseases of the heart, brain and spleen.
19th century therapeutics using cannabis
In addition to the use of cannabis in the treatment of both communicable and noncommunicable diseases in 19th century India, it had a key role to play in the area of therapeutics, ensuring that body and mind were kept healthy through preventive and restorative mechanisms, especially using its sedative, analgesic, tonic, digestive, carminative and stimulant properties that kept all the above mentioned diseases at bay.
One of the most common uses of cannabis as medicine was for the relief of pain, being used either as local or general anodynes. Bhang poultices were frequently mentioned as soothing local applications to painful parts; and poultices were used for inflamed piles and over the seat of pain in liver and bowel diseases, and to check inflammation and erysipelas. Fumigation with the smoke from burning ganja or bhang was also used as a local sedative in piles. A small fragment of charas was placed in a carious tooth to relieve toothache. In cases of circumcision the drugs were used as anesthetics, and a witness mentions that native doctors on rare occasions substituted ganja for chloroform in operations. The tincture of cannabis was used as a local anesthetic in extracting teeth. One witness states that hemp drugs were used as a substitute for opium. My thinking is that hemp drugs superseded opium in the Indian sub-continent in the treatment of pain, as the usage of hemp was much more pervasive and ancient, opium having arrived from outside in more recent times. Cannabis posed a very serious threat to the use of opium for treating pain. Opium was more favored by the British, and the prohibition of cannabis enabled opium to become the world's leading analgesic that it is today, with numerous pharmaceutical companies benefiting from opioids, besides a rampant illegal trade and a burgeoning number of deaths from opioid addiction and overdoses.
Besides the use of cannabis in pain management, as a part of therapeutics, it was also used for increasing appetite; giving tone to liver; removing fatigue; ensuring sleep; reducing nausea; and as a stimulating and invigorating beverage in hot weather. The Commission states that "The 'cooling and refreshing' cup of bhang taken by the well-to-do, especially in the hot weather, to stimulate their energies and to create an appetite for food is frequently in evidence. Some of the most intelligent and enterprising classes of the community are among those who thus use bhang. This use is generally spoken of without any marked condemnation, and often even with approval; for it is the practice of the respectable classes. But after all there seems quite equally good ground for believing that the chillum of ganja taken by the labouring man after his food with the object of allaying weariness and assisting digestion is no more harmful; and there are many witnesses whose evidence is in this sense. The use of bhang in the one case is sometimes compared to the glass of wine taken at meals by a moderate consumer of alcohol, and the use of ganja in the other case to the labouring man's glass of beer or even to his pipe of tobacco. It is possible also that the effects of hemp drugs in this respect may be to a certain extent comparable with those of tea." One witness states that in parts of Dacca, where large numbers of the labouring classes who used cannabis regularly toiled in the heat and humidity, "sunstroke and fever were almost unknown among them".
For more information on the medical uses of cannabis in 19th century India for humans and animals, please refer to ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals
In the United States, and in countries where cannabis has been legalized for medical use, the number of medical conditions for which patients are eligible to use cannabis for treatment number more than 30. In the US, these include: intractable epilepsy; seizure disorders; severe nausea; severe or chronic pain; cachexia (wasting syndrome); anorexia; hospice or palliative care; terminal illness; sickle cell anemia; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Crohn’s disease; Huntington’s disease; neuropathies; damage to the nervous tissue of the spinal cord; multiple sclerosis; Parkinson’s disease; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/Lou Gehrig’s disease; HIV/AIDS; cancer; traumatic brain injury (TBI); chronic renal failure requiring dialysis; spasticity; muscle spasms; cramping; appetite loss; severe vomiting; hepatitis C; glaucoma; pain lasting longer than two weeks; autism; ulcerative colitis; Alzheimer’s disease; neural-tube defects; idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis; neurodegenerative diseases; dyskinetic and spastic movement disorders; inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); Tourette’s syndrome; fibromyalgia; arthritis; Lupus; diabetes; obstructive sleep apnea; spasmodic torticollis (cervical dystonia); inclusion body myositis; anxiety; migraines; muscular dystrophy; chronic pancreatitis; Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome; nail-patella syndrome; Lennox-Gestaut syndrome; Dravet syndrome; spinocerebellar ataxia; syringomyelia; Tarlov cysts; Sjogren’s syndrome; postconcussion syndrome; neurofibromatosis; myasthenia gravis; myoclonus; hydrocephalus; hydromyelia; interstitial cystitis; CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Type II); dystonia; fibrous dysplasia; causalgia; chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; Arnold-Chiari malformation; epidermolysis bullosa; mitochondrial disease; decompensated cirrhosis; osteogenesis imperfecta; cerebral palsy; cystic fibrosis; post herpetic neuralgia; post laminectomy syndrome with chronic radiculopathy; severe psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.
It could be safely said that at least 75% of the Indian population is likely to affected by at least one of the above conditions, and so would have benefited from the availability of cannabis as medicine. If cannabis was permitted to be grown at an individual's home, the cost of medicine in this case would have been zero. As against this scenario, currently to treat a patient with any of the above conditions in a government or private hospital with pharmaceutical drugs - that are often ineffective, expensive and unavailable - raises the cost of treatment dramatically. So medical costs incurred by the country due to the prohibition of cannabis - which is a generic, low cost, safe, accessible medicine - and the use, in its absence, of expensive synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and the associated medical treatment needs to be quantified.
We will not go into the costs due to side effects of these synthetic pharmaceutical drugs or the costs to life incurred through death of the huge numbers of persons who either do not receive these pharmaceutical drugs as medicine or who fail to recover in spite of treatment. The cost of medicines vary from lakhs of rupees for diseases like cancer to a few thousand rupees for minor ailments. To arrive at the medical costs that the prohibition of cannabis has resulted in, let us assume that on an average an Indian spends a very low Rs 5000 per annum to avail of medicine to treat one of the above medical conditions. With an estimated population in India of 135 crores, 75% of this population would make 101.25 crores. So, if the spend of these 101.25 crore people, at the rate of Rs 5000 per year towards medicines for treating illnesses - that could have been treated by home grown or freely distributed cannabis - is considered as medical costs that the country is incurring through cannabis prohibition, the total annual costs in this case would be 101.25 crores x Rs 5000 = Rs 5.1 lakh crores.
Legal Costs
Black market losses and cost of preventive machinery.
The amount of cannabis seized by the Excise Department in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 is available through National Crime Research Bureau (NCRB) data. The seized cannabis, the overall illegal cannabis available in the black market, and the value associated with it, constitute a cost of prohibition because the revenues from the black market cannabis are not available to the white market economy and the cannabis seized by the Excise Department is allegedly destroyed by the department thus incurring losses to the economy. I will use the available cannabis seizure figures from 2017.
According to the NCRB, total quantity of cannabis seized in 2017 was 1233707.8 kg ganja, 9871.9 kg bhang, 209.2 kg hashish and 2190.3 kg charas. The report seems to erroneously report the same substance under two heads charas and hashish. I am making the assumption that the actual amount of cannabis available in the black market is 50 times the quantity seized and that the Excise Department has managed to seize 2% of the illegal cannabis. In terms of value of seized commodity, it is difficult to fix value as it varies from place to place within India. E.g. A kilogram of ganja may cost Rs 10,000 in certain rural areas but can cost easily as much Rs. 80,000 per kilogram in urban areas like Bengaluru. So, I will fix an arbitrary average cost of Rs 40,000 for a kilogram of ganja. A tola or roughly 10 grams of charas or hashish may cost anywhere between Rs 500 in areas where it is produced to Rs 6000 in urban areas. So, I will fix an arbitrary average cost of Rs 300 for one tola or 10 grams or Rs 3 lakh for a kilogram of hashish or charas. I will currently not consider the cost of bhang.
Using the above figures, the annual economic costs that the country incurs due to ganja and charas/hashish existing in the black market would be as follows:
The lost revenue from sales in the black market would thus be in the range of approx. Rs 2.51 lakh crores.
Taking 2017 as the reference year for calculating legal costs incurred by the country due to cannabis prohibition, when we examine the NCRB data we find that 276,168 cases were registered under the Excise Act and 63800 cases under the NDPS Act in 2017. It is not clear from the data how many of these cases were related to cannabis and how many were related to other drugs, such as illegal alcohol and other drugs. However, considering that the prohibition of cannabis is a likely cause for increase in consumption, as well as cases related to other drugs, and also considering that figures are most likely under-reported in India, I will treat all the above cases as cannabis cases for my analysis.
To associate a cost to a case registered under the Excise or NDPS Act, we need to consider the cost incurred by the Excise and Law Enforcement Departments in using their time and resources to investigate, take action and file the cases. We also need to consider the time and resources of the judiciary, in terms of conducting trial proceedings, with regard to each of the cases. I will roughly assign a total legal cost of Rs 50,000 per legal case to the Indian exchequer considering the time and resources utilized by the excise and law enforcement departments as well as the judiciary. Also in terms of inmates in prison, there was a total of 9637 convicts in prison across the country for committing offenses under Liquor and Drugs related acts under Special and Local Laws (SLL) in 2017 as per the NCRB data. There were 37135 undertrials in prisons across the country under the same laws. A recent report in the media pegged the cost to the exchequer at approximately Rs 1.2 lakh per annum per prisoner held in our prison system. Adding to this the law enforcement and judiciary costs for the trial process which each prisoner would have incurred, the total cost to the country per prisoner can be taken as approximately Rs 2 lakh.
Considering all the above, the total legal costs of cannabis prohibition per annum can be roughly estimated as follows:
Total cases in 2017, including Excise and NDPS cases = 276168 + 63800 = 339968
Total legal costs at Rs 50,000 per case = 339968 x 50000 = 16998400000 or ~ Rs 1699.8 crores
Total number of prisoners, including convicts and undertrials, in prison under the Liquor and Drugs related acts = 9637 + 37135 = 46772
At a cost of Rs 200000 per prisoner per year, the total cost = 46772 x 200000 = 9354400000 or ~ Rs 935.44 crores.
The total cost of judicial cases + prisoners = Rs 1699.8 + Rs 935.44 = Rs 2635.24 crores.
When we consider the cost of the preventive machinery, such as the Narcotics Control Bureau, Police, Excise, Judiciary and Prisons, I would peg a “thumb in the air” cost of around Rs 50,000 crore for this preventive machinery to enforce cannabis prohibition across the country.
Thus, the total cost looking at the revenues lost to the black market and the cost of the preventive machinery would be in the range of Rs 3 lakh crores of the taxpayer's money being lost to the economy.
For more information on the NDPS Act from a cannabis perspective, please see ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
Overall costs summary
Considering the total costs of cannabis prohibition as a sum of social, economic, medical and legal costs:
Social costs: Rs 4.93 lakh crores
Economic costs: Rs 4 lakh crores
Medical costs: Rs 5.1 lakh crores
Legal costs: Rs 3 lakh crores
Total costs incurred due to cannabis prohibition: Rs 17.03 lakh crores annually.
This does not consider environmental costs and costs due to loss of cannabis varieties due to cannabis prohibition.
Opposition and Hurdles to Cannabis Legalization in India
OPPOSITION
Opposition to cannabis legalization in India is wealthy, powerful and very influential. The same forces that pushed for cannabis prohibition 150 years ago still exist, and have become even more powerful in the absence of cannabis. In fact, they are the elites today – the ruling and upper classes, the upper castes – the 1% that possesses 70% of India's wealth. They form the leading industries in the country, as well as the world today, controlling governments and global policies with their wealth and influence. These forces, and the hurdles that they pose to legalization must not be taken lightly as they have not only managed to bring about cannabis prohibition globally, but they have also managed to effectively brainwash the global population into thinking that cannabis is evil.
Cannabis - as an intoxicant, medicine, food source, source of raw material across numerous industries and a spiritual drug used by vast numbers of Indians - proved to be a most potent threat to the elites and their industries in the past, and still does so, as has been widely acknowledged by various sections of society. Cannabis was much more affordable in the past, widely cultivated and used from time immemorial in Indian society. Users ranged from the poorest persons to elite classes of society. For the poorest persons, the affordability of cannabis, which could be easily grown at home and consumed with minimum processing, was of great appeal. It had escaped the burdensome taxation processes of past governments and was freely available. One of the first steps taken by the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries was to start taxing cannabis and curbing its cultivation. Specific steps were taken to completely eliminate home growing so that people were forced to go to the government run or approved retail outlets to procure their cannabis.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals Pages; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja
I will list some of the opposition. This list is however not exhaustive. There are also many other subtle forces that operate in addition to the ones mentioned below:
Alcohol, Opium and Tobacco industries
The alcohol, opium and tobacco industries had a significant hand in the prohibition of cannabis in India in the 19th century. These industries that emerged in the west in the last few centuries were already powerful at the outset, given that many wealthy businessmen and powerful politicians were deeply involved in, and owned these industries. To provide a clear growth path for these industries, all competition needed to be removed.
In spite of repeated warnings from well known and experienced persons in 19th century India - from the social, political and medical classes - attempts were made to tax cannabis so that its price became comparable to that of western alcohol and opium. Gradually people were forced and coerced to switch to alcohol even though it was widely acknowledged that alcohol posed a much greater threat to physical and mental health than cannabis, as had been already evidenced in Europe by this time. Tobacco too was encouraged and this new drug, which the Europeans discovered in the Americas, was introduced in India after the 17th century. Powerful politicians had huge tobacco plantations and went on to set up the giant tobacco companies that straddle the world today. The British developed a liking for opium as did the Indian ruling and upper classes. After fighting with China over control over opium, the British completely banned cannabis in Burma (now Myanmar), so as to provide a clear path for opium movement between the two nations. Through the lobbying and influence exerted by these powerful industries, cannabis was systematically phased out. Today, it is said that a significant number of Indians smoke tobacco, in place of ganja, charas and bhang (cannabis leaves). Western liquor has also established itself firmly in Indian society and the liquor lobby is a key source of government revenue in many states. India is the world's largest legal producer of opium. Heroin flows through India from Afghanistan and the Far East, with India forming a key transit point for global distribution of opioids. Opioids form one of the most significant drug addiction threats to the country today, with addiction having increased more than four-fold in recent years. The pharmaceutical industry and the medical industry prescribe opioids freely, mirroring the actions that have caused devastation in the United States in recent times. The opposition that these industries mount to cannabis legalization, directly and indirectly, through their mouthpieces, forms a significant part of the negative perception towards cannabis in India. They are sure to do all they can to keep cannabis prohibited, including lobbying India's lawmakers and policy makers.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
The Pharmaceutical Industry
The once freely available generic universal medicine that cannabis represented, treating a wide range of ailments and forming a key part of Indian natural medicine, has now been replaced by the products of giant pharmaceutical companies. These companies have moved from generic plant-based medicine to synthetic molecular medicine, backed by billions of dollars of research and patents, so that they can control the field of medicine. Where once a single plant was available that could be grown in one's garden to treat numerous ailments, an individual today must spend thousands, and even lakhs, of rupees to procure a cocktail of drugs to address even a single ailment. The pharmaceutical industry, whose growth coincided with the decline of cannabis as medicine, actively lobbies the medical industry, influences medical education and research and contributes material to keep the negative perception of cannabis high among all classes of Indian society. This industry, with vast influence, political clout and financial means, is a key opposition to the legalization of cannabis in India.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption
The Medical Industry
The field of medicine is today firmly aligned to the elites in society, with complete disregard for the hundreds of crores of people who languish because they cannot access or afford the expensive consultation and medical treatment that the medical and pharmaceutical industry offers. Cannabis was universal medicine, growing freely in one's garden or available in many retail outlets like any other herb. Cannabis, as medicine, was used by the young, adults and the old, by men and women. In places where cannabis has been legalized for medical and/or recreational purposes, we see that it is the older populations who are rejecting synthetic pharmaceutical medications and embracing cannabis as medicine. However, medical cannabis remains an elitist option, only affordable to the rich in developed countries, while the poor there still suffer like the poor everywhere. Legalization of cannabis will deal a body blow to the medical industry that looks as medicine as a means to maximize profits, rather than a service to humanity to ease its suffering.
The medical industry - consisting of physicians, care centers and the medical equipment industry - is today completely driven by the synthetic pharmaceutical industry. Natural medicine finds no place in this world. All medical education and practice revolves around the synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that emerge from pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies pump in huge amounts of money into medical colleges, control medical literature and provide physicians with enough financial incentives to ensure that natural medicine, especially cannabis, finds no place in the narrative. Today's physician has built his world around synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, expensive medical equipment, diagnostics and treatment. Today's physician misses no opportunity to ridicule natural medicine, especially cannabis, and has been largely instrumental in keeping cannabis prohibited with the story that it has no medicinal value. The world's most powerful medical organization, the World Health Organization (WHO), is completely dominated by this lopsided view of medicine, where the only medicine that works is synthetic man-made medicine.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth
The Petrochemical Industry
This industry is possibly the largest industry in the world and the most powerful. Petrochemical based synthetic products number in millions, and there is no area that they do not touch. These synthetic products, created at great cost to environment, represent the most dangerous threat to our environment with their all-pervasive presence in our land, water, air, food and bodies. These products are mostly nonbiodegradable. Cannabis poses a great threat to the petrochemical industry, given that it can be used to produce bio-degradable plastics, fabrics, fibers, building materials and a host of other materials that can replace the petrochemical industry's products.
Hence, the opposition of this industry to cannabis legalization. The petrochemical industry, along with the synthetic pharmaceutical industry and the modern medical industry, form a triad, with each boosting the other to become wealthy and powerful. Together, they control nearly all governments in the world and global policy making.
Law and Drug Enforcement
These entities, including the excise department, judiciary, police and prisons, rely on cannabis statistics to vastly bloat their performance statistics. The cannabis statistics provide the necessary numbers that determine budget allocation for many of these entities. In the absence of cannabis related crimes and statistics, many of these entities stand exposed, as they would struggle to justify their budget allocation and resource requirements. These entities continue to link cannabis with crime in society and have been one of the key opponents to cannabis legalization. Cannabis prohibition enables these entities to extort money from individuals and target those whom they, and their employers, view as a threat. They contribute significant literature and influence media, social welfare organizations and public perception at large, that cannabis is an evil responsible for high rates of crime in society. This is contrary to the fact that it has almost no influence on crime, as has been evidenced in leading scientific studies and societies where cannabis has been legalized for recreational use. This was also clearly established as a result of the Indian Hemp Drug Commission's report in 1895. Working along with the medical industry, law enforcement established the myth that cannabis is linked to insanity in 19th century India. This myth was widely promoted, enabling British India to not just prohibit cannabis in India, but also in other British colonies, setting the stage for subsequent global prohibition.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition
The Black Market
The black market for illegal drugs currently provides cannabis – in addition to much more dangerous drugs like heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and a plethora of existing and newly emerging chemical drug cocktails. The black market for drugs is worth lakhs of crores of rupees. It has the active participation of criminal networks and support of pharmaceutical industries and law enforcement. The huge amount of unaccounted money that flows into the coffers of these entities will be dealt a major blow if cannabis is legalized. With cannabis legalization, not only will the black market for cannabis diminish – as we see in Canada today – but the overall demand for the dangerous synthetic drugs will also diminish. Hence all these entities who ensure that the black market is thriving, do their significant bit to keep cannabis prohibited so that it does not reach the common man.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement
The so-called 'Upper Classes' of Society
For the 'ruling or upper' classes of society, who get their power, wealth and influence by creating social and economic structures where they are the superior classes, it is important to control the lower classes and use them for their own benefit. Cannabis, essentially the herb of the laboring and working classes, indigenous communities and minorities, provides these classes with relative freedom as it functions as their medicine, recreation, as well as social and religious drug. To keep a check on these classes, to keep them in control and captive to the structures of society created by the upper classes, the prohibition of cannabis has been a great boon. Cannabis prohibition is a means to imprison and coerce those who are viewed as threats to the existing social structure, to impose customs, rules and the ways of life of the upper classes on those who do not wish to follow these norms. The religious orthodoxy in India, across religions, have always seen ganja as a threat to their desire to play middleman between man and god. Ganja-smoking religious mendicants viewed divinity as something all-pervasive, and not any particular section of society's prerogative, thus posing a threat to the high priests of various religions who drew their power from the myth that they alone controlled access to, and knowledge of god.
Replacing the freely available and safe herb cannabis with alcohol, tobacco, opium, and now synthetic pharmaceutical drugs - legal and illegal - the upper classes have managed to get all the other classes addicted to these poisons which they control, thus controlling and enslaving these classes themselves. It was openly acknowledged in 19th century India that ganja smokers tended to be troublesome and rebellious against the social structures that the elites wished to impose. Among the steps taken by the British was the one to prohibit the use of ganja within its armies. The Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 may have been fueled by ganja smoking soldiers, leading to this subsequent ban by the army's British leaders. The country's elite, working in conjunction with the British, were instrumental in bringing about cannabis prohibition in India. In return, they got plum jobs, opium and western alcohol. The prohibition of cannabis everywhere in the world, and especially in India, is one of the ways that the upper classes maintain control over all the other classes and keep them chained to the existing social structure. These “upper” classes will do their utmost to keep cannabis prohibited, because in the legalization of cannabis they recognize the power and freedom that is likely to flow into the hands of the other classes, and so they fear it.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition
HURDLES
The above mentioned opponents to cannabis influence lawmakers, policy makers, and society at large, creating the myths that have contributed significantly to the negative perception against ganja and charas and their continuing prohibition. Some of the myths that have been propagated and which need to be overcome are as follows:
Myth 1 – Cannabis is a dangerous drug harmful to humans
There is no end to the false propaganda that is circulated, citing the deaths due to cannabis related overdose, addiction or insanity. This is one of the most widely spread myths, contributing significantly to the perception in society that cannabis is a dangerous drug. The scientific truth of the matter is that cannabis is one of the safest drugs in society today. Not only that, it has been around for as long as humans can remember, and has been used by different global populations, across age groups, for tens of thousands of years. Considering that cannabis is a natural herb, and consumed as such, its potency is tempered by natural evolutionary processes, unlike the dangerous potent synthetic substances churned out of synthetic pharmaceutical laboratories. The safe to lethal dosage ratio of cannabis is somewhere in the range of 1:40000 which means that you would need to dose yourself with a quantity about 40000 times the quantity at which you feel its effects for you to possibly die, a near physical impossibility. On the other hand, alcohol has a safe to lethal dosage ratio in the range of 1:6 and heroin has a safe to lethal dosage ratio that could be as low as 1:3. The safe to lethal dosage ratios of most synthetic legal and illegal pharmaceutical drugs, including the prescription medicine that vast sections of society consume daily, fall somewhere in the range between that of alcohol and heroin. As early as in the 19th century, one of the leading physicians of Britain, William O'Shaugnessey stated that - "As to the evil sequelæ so unanimously dwelt on by all writers, these did not appear to us so numerous, so immediate, or so formidable as many which may be clearly traced to over-indulgence in other powerful stimulants or narcotics, viz., alcohol, opium, or tobacco."
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
Myth 2 – Cannabis legalization will increase usage among youth
This is a commonly heard and widespread argument that strikes at the heart of every parent and well-wisher of society. Close examination of this myth will reveal that it is actually the prohibition of cannabis that forces youth to interact with the black market and procure cannabis, often of a spurious quality. The black market actively targets youth as they are the most vulnerable and not only sells cannabis to them but does so with the more deadly intent of hooking them onto more expensive, potent and dangerous chemical drugs, so as to make large profits. The rest of society remains with little or no access to cannabis in the meantime, remaining oblivious of the dangers and actively fueling the myth through ignorance. It has been found in societies where cannabis has been legalized, such as in Washington and Colorado states in the US, that with legal age restrictions imposed on its procurement and drug education imparted in schools and colleges, the youth cannabis usage rates as well, as overall youth drug usage rates, have actually started declining, and have not increased as the perpetrators of this myth constantly strive to spread. In India, when ganja was legal till about 150 years ago, it was mostly only after the age of 18 that men took to smoking ganja, whereas for women it was much later in life. Society self-regulated its use of ganja to ensure that it was used optimally. Children were given ganja mostly as medicine by adults.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
Myth 3 – Cannabis is a key contributor to crime in society
This myth, fueled and spread by many, especially law enforcement, has been repeatedly found wanting in places where cannabis has been legalized. It has been found that the link between cannabis and increased crime in society is very weak. As far back as in the 19th century, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission had arrived at this conclusion through detailed investigations and consultations with law enforcement agencies and society. As evidenced in US states where cannabis has been legalized for recreational use in the past few years, as well as Canada and Uruguay, there has been no significant spike in crime where cannabis has been legalized. Crime related to cannabis, if at all it occurs, is because there is no federal legalization in the US, due to which cannabis businesses do not have access to banking and so must handle cash. Besides this, the world over, the illegal status of cannabis means that it is currently handled by the black market, where many criminals with dealings in other areas like extortion, synthetic drug trafficking, arms deals and other criminal activities, use cannabis trade as a way to earn revenue and also strengthen their criminal networks. Even law and drug enforcement use cannabis prohibition as a way to extort money from innocent cannabis users, as is widely evident in recent times.
Many vulnerable persons, seeking cannabis, fall prey of criminals. In Canada, in just about two years of cannabis legalization, cannabis sales in the legal market has overtaken cannabis sales in the black market. So, contrary to the myth that is perpetrated, it is actually the illegal status of cannabis that leads to more crime in society. The legal drug, alcohol, has been associated with nearly 90% of incidents of domestic violence and homicide, as reported by the UNODC in its World Drug Report in 2020.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P18: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Exploring the Cannabis Causes Crime Myth; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
Myth 4 – Cannabis causes insanity
This is a myth spread by organizations formed by the above-mentioned opponents of cannabis. Thorough investigation of the cases of insanity in the lunatic asylums of India in the 19th century by the Hemp Commission revealed that the majority of cases of insanity attributed to cannabis were actually cases of pre-existing insanity in the individuals or cases wrongly diagnosed by unqualified persons, such as law enforcement personnel with little or no qualifications to make a diagnosis of the mental health of an individual. This continues to happen everywhere as there is probably no argument that strikes more fear at the heart of society than that of an insane person, fueled by ganja, indulging in rampant acts of violence, murder and rape. Our media has greatly contributed to this myth of reefer madness, and continues to do so, failing to differentiate sufficiently between different types of drugs, the nature of insanity and its causes. The myth of cannabis related insanity provides fuel for the medical and synthetic pharmaceutical industry to exploit innocent cannabis users, locking them up in rehabilitation centers, and pumping them with dangerous synthetic drugs, in the name of treatment. Law courts actively participate in this crime against society, by sending even a one-time user of cannabis to rehabilitation centers, under threat of prison. In terms of insanity, no other recreational drug has been more responsible than the popular legal drug, alcohol, that also contributes significantly to violence. This myth of cannabis causing insanity, first strengthened in India by the British from the 1850s on the basis of the erroneous statistics from lunatic asylums, was subsequently used to enforce cannabis prohibition in other British colonies, and finally across the world.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
Myth 5 – Cannabis causes addiction
When the Indian Hemp Commission investigated cannabis usage in India, it found that the cases of excessive usage of cannabis were so few, as compared to the moderate usage, that it was almost negligible. Around 5% of cannabis users were classified as excessive, a large number of these belonging to the classes of religious mendicants who used ganja to stave off hunger and face adverse conditions. Even among the so-called excessive users, it was found that if these persons are deprived of cannabis, they showed none of the life-threatening withdrawal symptoms associated with opioid or alcohol cessation. Even the criteria for classifying usage as moderate or excessive was not clearly defined, is subjective, and still continues to be so. For persons with a negative perception of cannabis, as is the case in the majority of society today, even a single use of the plant is sufficient to label a person as a highly addicted excessive drug user who needs immediate medical treatment. This has no doubt been fueled by drug rehabilitation centers, as well, who operate as profit making businesses in cohorts with the judiciary, pharmaceutical industry and medical industry. The reality that a person who uses cannabis excessively, usually has a constitution that makes him or her get addicted to various substances, is conveniently overlooked. The root causes of addiction are experiences such as childhood abuse, mental issues, social issues, trauma and other deep underlying causes which need to be addressed in society rather than wrongly attributing the causes of addiction to cannabis. Quite often the fact is completely missed that the absence of cannabis, as a recreational drug in society, is pushing these vulnerable persons to much more dangerous and addictive substance like alcohol, opioids and pharmaceutical medications that very quickly result in the person's social, economic, physical and mental breakdown and in most cases a rapid and painful death. In fact, cannabis is increasingly being used as treatment for opioid, cocaine, methamphetamine., alcohol and prescription drug addiction in the US. It is widely acknowledged, including by bodies such as UNODC, that the form of rehabilitation required for excessive cannabis usage is counseling, which is also indicative of the low potency of cannabis to create addiction.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
Myth 6 – Cannabis causes road fatalities
Another myth that has often been repeated is that the usage of cannabis impairs a person's ability to operate vehicles and poses a health hazard. Though there have been numerous studies on the subject, none have found conclusive evidence that link cannabis directly to road fatalities. An increasing number of US cities are now banning cannabis related workplace testing. Workplace testing is only being done in occupations where hazardous tasks are involved, such as operating vehicles and heavy machinery. Even in these areas, it is increasingly being recognized that the way to mitigate accidents is to use of impairment-based tests, rather than ban the cannabis user. The threat posed by cannabis, in terms of impairment, is far less in these situations to that posed by alcohol, sedatives and dangerous chemical drugs which are widely available, and currently used, in the absence of cannabis. In a country like India, where the majority of cannabis users are the poor, indigenous communities and the labouring classes, the risk of driving vehicles and causing fatalities, is much lesser than in Western countries where the number of individuals driving high powered vehicles is much higher.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
Perceived Risks associated with Cannabis Legalization
Some perceived risks associated with cannabis legalization are mentioned below:
The risk that large numbers of youth will take to cannabis.
With legalization, the reduction of the black market of cannabis targeting youth will reduce. In the current situation of cannabis prohibition, deadlier legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco and illegal drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine, novel psychotropic substances, and abuse of prescription drugs pose a far greater threat to youth. Also, youth who generally have an aversion to intoxicants are not likely to suddenly become addicted in large numbers. They may try it as a novelty, but few are likely to become highly dependent on cannabis. As mentioned in the previous section, this risk can be mitigated through education and awareness as well as a reversal of the negative propaganda surrounding cannabis. As evidenced in legalized societies, these measures have been sufficient to minimize the risk and actually reduce youth cannabis consumption rates. In fact, in places where cannabis has been legalized, it has been found that it is the elderly who are the most likely to switch to cannabis use as it offers them great medical benefits as compared to synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and alcohol. Before ganja was prohibited in 19th century India, it was almost entirely the adult population who consumed it. Children were given ganja-based sweetmeats as medicine only. Even though ganja was widely available everywhere, and free, it did not make all the youth and children into consumers.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals
The risk of social and moral degradation
The risk of Indian society degrading and falling apart with the availability of cannabis is also frequently spoken about by those opposed to it. Considering that Indian society used cannabis for tens of thousands of years before prohibition and did not cease to exist should be sufficient evidence that this risk is highly unlikely to be realized. Society did not lose all its moral values and turn decadent in the thousands of years when ganja was completely legal. In fact, India was the envy of the world, in terms of its wealth and civilizational sophistication, drawing numerous nations to it to either establish friendly relations or conquer it through use of force. Also, the fact that many of society's key thinkers, intellectuals and creative persons consume cannabis should also be evidence that its legalization will not lead to a moral, physical, mental and social breakdown of Indian society, instead it is likely to reenergize the vibrancy and health of society.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis
The risk of monopoly by big businesses
The risk of big businesses moving in to corner the Indian cannabis market, depriving Indian farmers, especially the poorest farmers and Indian society at large, is a very real risk. Already a number of multinational cannabis companies exist, especially Canadian, Dutch and Israeli companies. These companies have entered, or tried to enter, into agreements with African and South American governments, where they seek to corner the cannabis produce for export to North America and Europe where demand is high and produce is not locally available. The risk here is that the Indian small-scale farmer and the poorer sections of society will not have access to cannabis which will be locally grown by these big businesses, processed and exported elsewhere. What we are witnessing in terms of medical cannabis is that global companies are establishing monopolies over cannabis produce and then catering their products to the global elites, while the vast majority of the poor languish without access or affordability. This will be a replay of what big businesses in the areas of alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals have done. It is important that sufficient safeguards are put in place so that the Indian small scale farmer and the sections of Indian society that need and stand to benefit from the plant the most i.e. the poorest, the indigenous communities, the minorities, the aged and the medically ill will not be deprived of the plant. That is why the path of medical cannabis, which is being followed by many European countries, US states as well as the Oceanic countries is not suitable for India, as this will only continue the status quo of taking ganja away from the poor and the needy and putting it in the hands of the elites. Complete legalization, and the return of ganja to the status of any other agricultural commodity in India, with emphasis on its availability and affordability to the vast majority of India's poor is the way to mitigate this risk. Any sort of regulation of ganja or charas will only take it out of the hands of the poor and deliver it to the elites, as we have seen over the last 150 years in India, and elsewhere.
The risk of potent synthetic derivatives from cannabis causing harm
There is always the risk that some unscrupulous individuals, intent on maximizing their profits at any cost, will look to synthesize cannabis compounds, creating harmful new products with high potency, similar to heroin synthesized from opium. But when one considers that the one cannabis compound that has caused concern in recent times through synthesis is delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) related derivatives, it should be obvious that there is not much harm that can be synthesized out of cannabis. THC is the most medicinal compound in cannabis. Also, considering the high safety profile of cannabis, there are many other areas that society needs to be more concerned about, such as synthetic drugs, novel psychotropic substances (NPS), chemical fertilizers and pesticides , adulterated food and water, and dangerous petrochemical based products. In any case, there are adequate safeguards in place in society, to regulate these synthetic substances, such as food and drug regulatory bodies, even though we cannot speak very highly of their effectiveness so far. Cannabis derived synthetics should rank amongst the lowest concerns in society today.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
Significance of these Opponents, Hurdles and Risks to Ganja Legalization
So, some of the challenges that cannabis legalization faces are from the above mentioned opponents and the hurdles they have created through myths propagated in society. The level of ignorance with relation to cannabis is extremely high. Media, thinkers, and influential leaders of society all strongly believe the false propaganda that cannabis opponents have created over the last century or so, and changing their perceptions is a key challenge. There must be sufficient awareness and collective will in society to overcome these forces. Even if the Supreme Court of India passes the judgement that the prohibition of cannabis goes against the fundamental rights of an Indian citizen, it is very likely that – similar to the situation in South Africa and Mexico – the parliament will effectively prolong or delay the required changes in law to bring cannabis legalization into effect. So, the Supreme Court's judgement in favor of cannabis legalization may appear to be a bit toothless. However, what it will serve to do is bring nationwide focus on this most important subject for India. Nationwide focus is the only way to change public opinion, and through the change in public opinion lawmakers can be put to account for their actions.
2. Questions of Law
Rights of the Cannabis User
The prohibition of ganja and charas is discrimination against an Indian citizen on the basis of religion, economics, societal norms, value systems and culture. Whereas a significant number of religious mendicants across all religions were serious consumers of ganja and charas - and still are - the prohibition of ganja and charas has resulted in this section of society - which is generally among the poorest in the country - being unable to freely access and use the herb that enables them to follow their spiritual pursuits and endure the adverse conditions in their lives, as they did in the past before prohibition. Whereas most ganja and charas consumers were the poorest classes of society, especially the labouring and working classes, ganja prohibition has resulted in the rich, well-to-do upper classes freely enjoying the prohibited herb while the country's masses have suffered from non-availability, non-affordability, and the wrath of law enforcement. Whereas a number of ganja and charas consumers come from the non-upper caste Hindu society, i.e. they belong to minority religions, indigenous communities, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, these sections have been discriminated against for going against the societal norms, value systems and culture of the upper-caste Hindus and orthodoxy of other religions, as well as the value systems of the British colonists. Whereas many cultural and societal value systems across India - especially among the indigenous communities, as well as the earlier inhabitants of India - view ganja as an inherent part of the religious, social and medical landscape for thousands of years, the upper-castes, relatively newer migrants to India, and the British colonists have imposed their societal norms and value systems consisting of western alcohol, tobacco, opium and synthetic pharmaceutical medicines. Persons who wished to use ganja or charas for recreation or medicine were branded as the most abhorrent in society by the British and Indian upper-castes and ruling classes during the 1850s. With the passing of time, this discrimination against the other classes and religions translated into a complete prohibition of the herb of the masses. With the introduction of ganja and charas in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, the process of making this discrimination an official law was complete.
The question of the religious and spiritual significance of the ganja plant is conveniently avoided in the entire NDPS Act of 1985. This, along with the complete omission of the word 'bhang' in the Act, makes it clear that the NDPS Act was strongly influenced by other anti-ganja laws – the U.S. Marihuana Act of 1937, the 1961 Single Convention Treaty and the US Controlled Substances Act. These anti-ganja drug laws were essentially formulated by the Americans, who hardly understood the significance of ganja and charas to India, and formulated these laws to subdue their own lower classes and castes – the Hispanics, Blacks, Native Indians and liberal thinkers commonly known as hippies. It is common knowledge that large parts of India consume bhang, a drink made from the cannabis leaves, during major festivals like Holi, Diwali and Durga Puja. It is also common knowledge that lakhs of ascetics, fakirs and other religious mendicants regularly consume the cannabis plant as a part of their spiritual traditions and customs. It is common knowledge that Varanasi, revered as the holy city of Shiva, has retail outlets that sell cannabis and its derivatives. Almost the entire country associates the ganja plant with Shiva, who is revered across the country as one of its most important gods. Not only this, Muslims - particularly of the Sufi sects -, Sikhs and Buddhists have been known for centuries to consume cannabis, in preference to alcohol, in keeping with their religious traditions.
So, such a significant part of Indian long-standing medical, agricultural, social and religious customs and traditions being forcefully removed constitutes a direct infringement on the rights of vast numbers of individuals and communities. Through the NDPS Act, the State directly violates key articles of the Indian Constitution, namely Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46, 47.
Article 14 of the Indian Constitution
Article 14 of the Indian Constitution states that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.” The prohibition of ganja and charas violates the right to equality. A person from a lower economic, social or religious strata faces much greater discrimination by law enforcement that the upper stratas. It is difficult to procure ganja and charas because they are so highly priced and made inaccessible except through the black market making them available only to the upper classes. Cultivation, trade, possession and cultivation are also more likely to draw harsh punishments to the lower sections of society than to upper classes. The denial of the medicinal ayurvedic herb ganja - both as medicine and intoxicant - and instead, the push, by the state, of western alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs – legal and illegal - the preferred drugs of the elites, to the poorer sections of society and to those who do not want these alternatives, is a violation of Article 14.
For me, with the illegality of ganja and charas, I am unable to cultivate, home grow, procure, possess or consume the same. The rich upper classes and castes procure and consume ganja and charas, and a host of illegal synthetic drugs, from the black market, paying exorbitant sums of money, besides freely accessing the legal drugs – alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceuticals. I am neither able to afford the sums of money required to procure the legal and illegal synthetic drugs, nor do I wish to procure and consume them. I do not wish to go against the laws of the land by trying to procure ganja and charas from the black market illegally. I also do not wish to wholeheartedly embrace tobacco or alcohol, the government-endorsed highly harmful legal drugs. This bias towards the intoxicants and medicines of the rich, while denying me my preferred safe intoxicant and medicine, goes directly against the right to equality, as espoused in Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb;ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja
Article 15.(1) of the Indian Constitution
Article 15.(1) of the Indian Constitution states that "The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them." The prohibition of ganja and charas is a clear discrimination against the persons who consider it an essential part of their religion. The NDPS Act discriminates against the religions that the ganja plant is associated with, which is effectively all religions. If cannabis is illegal, as per the NDPS Act, then the Kumbh mela and the existence of Varanasi's cannabis outlets and the groups of religious ascetics who practice their religion through cannabis consumption, perpetuate crimes that must be stopped and punished. Alternately, cannabis must be recognized as inherent to our religious culture and legalized uniformly throughout India. Not having a uniform set of laws when it comes to all citizens of India amounts to discrimination against some, and bias towards others, on the basis of religion, race, sex and caste. If the NDPS Act must stand with regard to cannabis, then its selective legality among certain sections of society and illegality among others amounts to a violation of Article 15. One of the least studied aspects of Indian society is how the non-ganja using communities – such as upper-castes and upper-class orthodoxy or conservatives among Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains – have systematically taken away the ganja used by lower classes, lower castes, and indigenous communities of all religions, who were essentially the original inhabitants of India. Specifically, in the case of followers of Siva - for whom ganja is considered an essential path to communion with god - this forced conversion to the habits of non-ganja users can be clearly seen.
Besides ganja prohibition being religious discrimination, it is also discrimination on the basis of caste, where the upper-castes have tried to impose their norms on the lower castes. It is also discrimination on the basis of sex, because a woman smoking ganja is discriminated against by a patriarchal society. It is discrimination on the basis of race, where the later migrants to India view themselves as a superior race, and the indigenous races as inferior races that must give up their traditions and follow the customs and norms of the migrant races that settled in India subsequently.
From a personal standpoint, ganja is a most valuable spiritual aid for me. It enables me to, when I desire, meditate and keep my mind and focus on the eternal spirit. The non-availability, illegality and high cost of ganja, I find to be a massive hurdle to my path of religious and spiritual freedom. It is absurd if I am required to don a set of saffron robes to procure and consume my ganja and charas, and to get legal sanction from the authorities. Many charlatans follow the route of putting on garbs to access ganja and charas, whereas I, who do not wish to put on a particular attire to practice my spirituality, cannot procure the ganja and charas that I require for my spiritual practices. Hence, the prohibition of ganja and charas, discriminates against me and favors others, thus going against Article 15 of the Constitution of India.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis
Article 19 of the Indian Constitution
Article 19 of the Indian Constitution states that "(1) All citizens shall have the right — (g) to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business." The NDPS Act, by prohibiting the home growing, cultivation and sale of ganja - a plant cultivated for thousands of years in India forming one of the most important agricultural crops, - especially by India's poorest farmers, who still constitute a majority of the Indian agricultural community, infringes on Article 19. In 1895, the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission stated that “Ganja ranks as one of the superior crops.” By keeping the highly sustainable and versatile ganja plant unavailable as an option for industry and trade, while many other countries allow it, the State violates Article 19. Plants such as tobacco, rice and cotton, that are no longer sustainable to grow in many places across the country, are still given the greatest importance by the State. This has led to depleted soils, water shortages, overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. To top it all, a poor farmer is forced to take loans that they are unable to repay, in order to follow these unsustainable forms of agriculture. Ganja was grown by the poorest farmers across the country for medicine, intoxication, nutrition and industry, in what is now being discovered to be a highly sustainable manner.
Preventing the poor small farmer from growing ganja and selling it in the legal market goes against Article 19. Cannabis used for industrial purposes - such as textiles, bio-degradable plastics, fabrics, construction material, paper , pharmaceutical drugs, intoxicants, wellness products, nutrition, etc. - would enable a vast number of individuals and communities to pursue sustainable occupations and businesses, instead of the highly unsustainable petrochemical, synthetic pharmaceutical, alcohol and tobacco businesses that destroy the world today. Moreover, by stating in the NDPS Act that cannabis can be consumed and cultivated for scientific and/or medical purposes but not providing the provisions and not permitting individuals to do so, the prohibition further impinges on this article. This violation of Article 19 is even more stark in the light of worldwide initiatives that have now legalized cannabis for recreation, home growing, industrial and medical use in the very same countries that pushed India into including ganja and charas in the NDPS Act of 1985.
In India, it was always the poorest sections of society that cultivated ganja or sold it in retail. Gradually, with regulation, this passed into the hands of select cultivators and sellers who were rich and influential with the administration. Today, complete legalization of ganja and charas will not only enable these poorer sections of society to grow and sell as they wish for some much-needed additional income, it will also spawn a whole plethora of cannabis-based industries that are sound sustainable economics. For Indian physicians of natural medicine, who relied on ganja as a key medicine, the prohibition has taken away the most important medicine in their medical cabinet, greatly reducing their ability to perform their services effectively.
From a personal standpoint, I have shunned the path of accumulating material wealth for the past fourteen years. I have no means of income at the moment, relying on the money I saved from the past to get by. The prohibition of ganja and charas prevents me from growing ganja at home, or cultivating it if I wish to do so, not just for my personal use, but also to share with others who I think need the herb. It also prevents me from being able to sell ganja like any other agricultural produce, if I sought to do so as a means of income to sustain myself. Hence by keeping ganja and charas prohibited, Article 19 of the Constitution is clearly violated, both in my case, and also in the case of the numerous small farmers, and poor individuals who wish to do so.
For further information, please see ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution
Article 21 of the Indian Constitution states that "21. No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.” The number of persons from the lower castes, lower classes, the poor, the minorities and the indigenous communities who have had their liberty deprived for cultivating, trading, possessing and consuming ganja or charas shows that neither are procedures established by law working, nor the law itself, when it comes to ganja or charas prohibition. The rich and upper classes procure their ganja and charas from the black market, bribe law enforcement, hire lawyers in law courts, pay the fines or undergo the meaningless drug rehabilitation so as to escape prison. The poor spend their time languishing in prison as undertrials or prisoners for crimes that are insignificant compared to the crimes that the rich commit. Quite often, the cases filed against individuals with regard to ganja neglect many serious steps, with the procedure aimed mostly to teach the poor a lesson, harass individuals who do not toe the line of the authorities, or simply to boost law enforcement performance numbers. For associating with a herb that is integral to Indian society, an individual is likely to lose his or her liberty, with scant regard for judicial procedure by law enforcement. Searches are conducted without proper authorization; drugs are often planted to implicate the victim; biased witnesses are brought along, if at all, by the search party; attempts are made to extort money from the individual in exchange for leniency or no charge sheet; bail is denied for the most frivolous reasons; an undertrial, especially a poor one, is very likely to languish in prison for years for something as innocuous as possession of a small quantity of ganja or charas. Thus, by keeping ganja and charas illegal, the state infringes on the individual's right to life and personal liberty by depriving him or her of a most valuable medicine, a safe natural intoxicant and a key source of nutrition, well being and industry. The legal procedures set up through the NDPS Act deprives large sections of Indian society, especially the poorest, the minorities, the lower classes and castes, the religious mendicants and the indigenous communities of their right to life and liberty.
For further information, please see ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P18: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Exploring the Cannabis Causes Crime Myth; ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
Article 25 of the Indian Constitution
Article 25.(1) of the Indian Constitution states that "Subject to public order, morality and health and to the other provisions of this Part, all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion." Considering the role that ganja plays in Indian religious tradition, its ban goes against Article 25. Ganja is most often used by its spiritual consumers to aid in meditation, to improve concentration and to steady their minds in the pursuit of spiritual goals, as most commonly cited reasons why spiritualists of all Indian religions use the herb. For the religious mendicants across all religions, ganja and charas was key to their spiritual practice in many cases, as well as a way to face adverse conditions, and to combat fatigue, illnesses and hunger. Preventing a person from consuming ganja and charas which is as an aid to, and a most important aspect of, his spiritual quest is a violation of Article 25 of the Constitution. What one sees here is a clear discrimination by upper-castes and orthodoxy across religions to bring the majority of Indians to their ways of religion. For the British orthodoxy, it was part of the process of trying to convert Indians to Christianity. For the Indian orthodoxy across all religions, it was an attempt to convert Indians to Indian religious orthodoxy. Despite the fact that it was widely known and acknowledged that among many Saivite, Vaishnavite, Sikh, Islamic and indigenous communities ganja was a key part of the religious communion with god, the State went ahead and prohibited the herb, thus directly violating Article 25.
As stated above - with regard to Article 15 of the constitution - the prohibition of ganja affects me directly in terms of pursuing my preferred path of spirituality that uses ganja as a spiritual aid. Ganja and charas directly enable me to lead a simple, minimalist, natural life shunning the paths of procuring and amassing material wealth. Ganja and charas enable me to still the fluctuations of my mind, concentrate, focus and meditate on the eternal spirit and its manifestations as form. The nonavailability of ganja and charas directly hinder my spiritual practices, thus going against Article 25 of the Constitution of India.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis
Article 38 of the Indian Constitution
Article 38 of the Indian Constitution states that "(1) The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life. (2) The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations." The NDPS Act goes against Article 38 by prohibiting ganja and charas, going against the social order that existed for the country's entire history from as far back as we can see. By preventing the poor, the minorities and the indigenous communities from practicing their age-old occupation of ganja cultivation and engaging in its trade, the Act infringes on Article 38. By prohibiting ganja, it is these very same classes – the poor, the indigenous communities, the working and labouring classes who form the majority of ganja consumers in the country - that are being discriminated against. By selective justice that treats drug use, especially ganja and charas use, as a crime as serious as, or more serious than, most crimes defined in the IPC, and by constituting a special Act that harms mostly minorities, the poor, indigenous communities, religious mendicants and tribals, the Act infringes on Article 38. We see most often that it is the poor, minorities, and indigenous communities - who are the main consuming classes of ganja and charas - that are deprived of ganja and charas, and who face most severe action from law enforcement for cultivating, trading possessing or consuming ganja or charas.
The prohibition of ganja and charas reinforces class and caste-based inequalities, as it has always been perceived that it is the lowest classes and castes who are consumers of the same, whereas bhang is viewed as a drug of the upper classes and castes. Thus, prohibition disrupts a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, informs all the institutions of the national life, a social order that existed for thousands of years before the advent of ganja and charas prohibition. The upper classes and castes also associate themselves with opioids, alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, and constantly seek to impose these harmful drugs on the lower classes and castes. In terms of economic inequalities, the prohibition on ganja and charas means that the occupations that the rich pursue - such as petrochemicals, synthetic pharmaceuticals, western alcohol and tobacco industries - have only served to make the upper classes and castes wealthier, whereas the poor ganja cultivator or seller has been deprived of his or her means to earn income, thus vastly increasing economic inequality. The non-availability of ganja and charas for sustainable economics and industry – such as biodegradable plastics, textiles, paper, fiber, nutrition, wellness, etc. - deprives numerous sections and communities of society that would have used the ganja plant as a means to pursue related vocations, occupations and businesses. These are vocations, occupation and businesses that would not just boost the Indian economy, but would reduce the huge economic inequality gap, and most importantly, combat and reduce the highly unsustainable industries - such as petrochemicals, tobacco, synthetic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and synthetic pharmaceuticals - that have wrecked havoc with planet and life on earth leading to the precarious condition of life on the planet today.
As an individual with little or no income, I cannot cultivate ganja in a sustainable manner for personal use, barter or commercial sale due to its prohibition. Thus, ganja and charas prohibition directly affects me, in terms of violating Article 38 of the Indian Constitution.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
Article 43 of the Indian Constitution
Article 43 of the Indian Constitution states that "The State shall endeavour to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, conditions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural areas.” In the US today, the cannabis industry is projected to be a $100-billion-industry in 2024. This is despite a federal prohibition, and despite only 23 out of 50 states having legalized ganja and charas for recreational use so far. Despite all the hurdles, cannabis was the sixth most valuable crop in the US last year. In India, ganja was one of the most important crops for agriculturists before 1850, being cultivated all across the country.
Today, with legalization, the Indian farmer will have a valuable additional crop that is climate resilient. With ganja and charas legalization, an entire plethora of sustainable industries - ranging across pharmaceuticals, intoxicants, food, beverages, wellness, fabrics, textiles, paper, construction, bio-degradable plastics, research, etc. - will open up, replacing or reducing the existing unsustainable industries in these areas.
Numerous forms of employment across a range of industries will be created, as will new businesses and services. Small farmers will be able to cultivate and sell to the market through co-operatives, much like other agricultural and dairy produce is done across the country today. The poor will be able to sell cannabis produce to supplement their incomes. Cannabis as an additional produce will inject new life into the storage, processing, packaging, transportation, distribution, retail and export industries. The humungous costs associated with ganja and charas prohibition, that I listed in an earlier section above, can be reduced. By neglecting all these, the State has failed the cannabis industry in India, which was one of the most robust industries in the past, earning Bengal nearly 20% of state revenue in the 19th century. Instead of pursuing proactive measures, like the reintroduction of the cannabis industry, the State encourages industries - such as petrochemicals, synthetic pharmaceuticals, chemical pesticides and fertilizers and tobacco - that are harmful to man and planet.
The legalization of ganja and charas will provide me with an option to follow a path of sustainable economic activity to raise my standard of living through the growing, cultivation, and if required, sale of ganja. It will help me in the full enjoyment of leisure, cultural and social activities, along with other members of the ganja community, much like how it was in India before the end of the 19th century. I am unable to do so, at present, due to the prohibition on cultivation and home growing of ganja. Hence, my fundamental right under Article 43 of the Indian Constitution is violated.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
Article 46 of the Indian Constitution
Article 46 of the Indian Constitution states that " The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and, in particular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation.” Ganja and charas prohibition is, more than anything else, economic and social discrimination against the weaker sections of the people - especially the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes - for whom ganja was an inherent way of life. Through ganja and charas prohibition, the State has not only taken away a key economic aid for the weaker sections of society, it has also taken away their means of safe, affordable medicine; it has taken away a safe intoxicant; it has disrupted the methods of worship of the poor; it has taken away a valuable means of nutrition; it has take away a means of sustainable industry, especially small-scale cottage industry. Rather than protecting the weaker sections of society, the prohibition of ganja and charas is a direct attack on these sections. Not only are they deprived of ganja and charas as intoxicant, medicine, source of revenue, nutrition, entheogen, etc., the weaker sections of society have had to face a relentless attack by law and drug enforcement, in the name of the war on ganja and charas. The majority of poor persons who commit ganja and charas violations end up in prison. For many of India's indigenous communities, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, ganja was an inherent part of their culture and social life.
As we see from the Indian Hemp Commission's report of 1895, ganja was the drug of the poorest classes in India, before it was prohibited. Thus, the prohibition of ganja and charas is a direct violation of Article 46 by the State.
For more information please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis; ANNEXURE P18: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Exploring the Cannabis Causes Crime Myth; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms; ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
Article 47 of the Indian Constitution
Article 47 in the constitution speaks of the role that the state must play with regard to health as follows: “47. The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.” Every individual has the right to choose the measures to protect her body and mind against any disease or threat to life. She has the complete right to shun harmful substances and choose those substances which she believes is safe for her, whether it be intoxicants, food or medicine. This is entirely the freedom of choice of that individual, as her body constitutes an inviolate space that no other may invade. Bringing legal action against an individual just because she prefers to medicate or recreate with ganja or charas rather than use what she perceives to be harmful medicines or intoxicants prescribed by certain vested sections of society, is a violation of this fundamental right that the individual has over his or her own health, body and mind. In the US, where medical cannabis is legal in around 38 states, ganja and charas are used to treat over 30 medical conditions, conditions that are as prevalent in Indian society as in the US. Many persons, in western countries where medical cannabis is available, have rejected harmful synthetic pharmaceuticals in favor of cannabis. In India, where the majority of the population is poor, neither can the vast majority of the population access or afford the expensive and harmful synthetic pharmaceuticals, nor can they access the highly affordable and safe ganja and charas which can be grown in every person's home. The State has largely failed on this ground by removing a highly medicinal plant that is affordable, safe, tested and widely used in Indian society for thousands of years and which formed a key part of the Indian physician's medical chest till the end of the 19th century, a medicine that could be the pillar of universal public healthcare in India.
The plant also provided healthy, non-addictive and affordable intoxication to large numbers of people, almost free of cost if grown as a regular agricultural commodity or garden herb. By banning the plant and replacing it with highly toxic, expensive and addictive synthetic pharmaceutical drugs, opioids, tobacco and alcohol, the state has completely failed with regard to Article 47 in its duties to safeguard and protect the health of the Indian citizen. Millions of people are addicted to synthetic pharmaceutical drugs and many die each year from this. It is the same case with alcohol that has replaced many traditional Indian country liquors and cannabis. And so is the case with tobacco. Healthy medicinal beverages, such as thandai, have been replaced with aerated sugar-based drinks that wreck public health and the environment. In the area of nutrition, hemp-based foods and oils have been replaced with unhealthy junk foods. In the areas of wellness and cosmetics, cannabis-based wellness and cosmetics have been replaced with harmful synthetic products. Ganja and charas, if legalized, can provide affordable universal healthcare, safe intoxication and sustainable nutrition to large sections of India's population.
From a personal standpoint, I prefer ganja or charas for my medication and intoxicant - to relieve pain, stress, fatigue; to combat and prevent various diseases and illnesses; and as safe natural intoxicant - rather than the alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs that I am constantly being coerced to turn to, even though I do not wish to - in the absence of ganja and charas. I have more or less managed to stay away from synthetic pharmaceutical medications as medicine for the last 30 years, but I still have to depend on the poor, harmful substitutes – alcohol and tobacco - provided as alternatives for intoxication. The State has failed miserably, through the prohibition of ganja and charas, in its duty as guardian of Article 47 of the Constitution of India.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption ; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption ; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms; ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
Rights of the Cannabis Plant
The definition of cannabis, as specified in Chapter 1, section 2 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985, is as follows:
(ii)“cannabis (hemp)” means— (a) charas, that is, the separated resin, in whatever form, whether crude or purified, obtained from the cannabis plant and also includes concentrated preparation and resin known as hashish oil or liquid hashish; (b) ganja, that is, the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops), by whatever name they may be known or designated; and (c) any mixture, with or without any neutral material, of any of the above forms of cannabis or any drink prepared therefrom; (iv) “cannabis plant” means any plant of the genus cannabis;
According to the definition of cannabis in the NDPS Act, which is the same as that in the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs from which it is blindly copied, the flowering parts of the cannabis plant and its resin are illegal, whereas the rest of the plant is legal. Is there anything more absurd than this law, which seeks to criminalize nature, saying that a natural plant is legal when it is young, but when it matures and flowers and starts producing resin it becomes illegal. The equivalent of this, in the human world, would be to say that a human is legal as a child, but becomes illegal as an adult. The entire world of humans – barring Canada, Uruguay and 23 US states till date - has signed up to, and zealously implemented, this most absurd law against nature. Every nation and the UN strive diligently each year to keep this absurd law in force, expending vast sums of money to keep the law in place, even though hundreds of millions continue to access ganja and charas through the black market. To make things far worse, the prohibition of ganja and charas has led to the insatiable demand for much more dangerous drugs – such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, novel psychotropic substances, besides the legal and highly dangerous alcohol, tobacco and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs. As if this absurdly blatant discrimination against the cannabis plant for producing flowers and resin as a part of its natural cycle was not enough, we also see that the Western world follows an additional system of discrimination, mainly that of considering cannabis legal or illegal, based on the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinal (THC) that is present in the plant. The West has fixed a completely random, unscientific 0.3% limit for THC, the most medicinal compound in cannabis plants. The Indian NDPS lacks even this amount of sophistication, with a blanket prohibition of all cannabis plants that flower and produce resin. A plant that came into existence 28 million years ago has been banned by humans who climbed down from the trees about a million years ago.
Even though the plant cannot speak the human language and communicate its rights, it will be quite obvious for anyone - who gives the subject even the slightest thought - to agree that the rights of the cannabis plant are the same as that of any living being in nature, no different. The cannabis plant is the most important stakeholder with regard to cannabis policy. This may appear strange to persons who view humans as superior to nature, vested with various rights and freedoms and the rest of nature as being subservient to them. However, a proper examination of reality will reveal that all of nature enjoys the same rights and freedoms as humans, and no part of nature can be denied these rights by humans, because humans are a part of nature, a creation of nature and not the other way around. As a living being on this planet, the cannabis plant - regardless of variety and amount of THC - has the following rights:
- Right to life and to be a part of the web of life – the cannabis plant has as much right to life as any other living being on this planet, having being created by the same forces of nature that created the rest of life on this planet. Just as every other form of life forms intricate connections with other forms of life - consuming some forms to survive and being consumed, in turn, by other life forms for their own survival - so too must the cannabis plant be allowed to grow freely in nature, and to be accessible for all the forms of life that wish to consume it.
- Right to equality – the cannabis plant has the same right to equality as all other living beings. It cannot be discriminated against, regulated and prohibited by humans. The bounds of human laws are limited to human creations, such as synthetic substances invented in laboratories. There are numerous regulatory bodies tasked with the regulation of these man-made substances - and that is how it should be - as these deviations from natural evolution need to be assessed to ascertain the threat they pose to nature. Human laws cannot be applied to a plant that has evolved in nature over millions of years, and that existed for millions of years before humans even appeared on the scene, and that has been tested for safety by diverse human populations across the world for thousands of years. The fact that natural ganja and charas are the most popular intoxicants worldwide, despite prohibition, is testimony to the safe profile of ganja and charas as intoxicants and medicine. The cannabis plant must be governed by natural laws, like all other forms of life, not human laws. The cannabis plant must be allowed to grow freely in nature, to grow through its entire lifecycle into flowering and resin production. The plant cannot be discriminated against - based on the amount of THC it possesses or whether it produces flower and resin - which are all inherent qualities of the plant. That is the cannabis plant's right to equality.
- Right to protection – no other plant has faced the sort of violence that the cannabis plant, once India's most revered plant and the favorite of the great god Siva, has. The actions over the last 150 years can be termed as “phytocide” or plant genocide. A plant that grew wildly in nature all over India, besides being cultivated and grown in house compounds across the length and breadth of India, has been systematically decimated wherever it has been found. Overzealous law and drug enforcement agencies and members of civil society with misplaced concepts of moral values have exterminated the plant wherever they found it. We will never know how many precious indigenous varieties of ganja have gone extinct forever. The cannabis plant must enjoy the same right to protection that all other forms of nature enjoy. Just as when we recognize that a particular form of nature is threatened with extinction by human actions, we extend all forms of protection and strive to revive the natural creation, we must recognize the threat to the cannabis plant from the destructive human policies that we have formulated against it. We must remove the destructive policies and must, instead, formulate new ones that protect the cannabis plant, propagate it and increase its biodiversity. This is no insignificant action, considering that the cannabis plant now offers us one of the foremost strategies to combat catastrophic climate change caused by the synthetic creations of humans which are the ones that need tight regulation and oversight.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective; ANNEXURE P23: Government Resolution Appointing the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission 1894-95
3. Grounds
In the case of cannabis there should really be no necessity to elaborate the benefits of legalizing the plant and removing its prohibition in India. Just the following facts should be more than sufficient justification for its legalization:
- that the cannabis plant was inherent to India's way of life and used widely in India in the past from as long back as we can remember
- the spiritual significance of the plant across multiple religions in India
- the widespread usage of cannabis as universal natural medicine across India in the past
- the existence of the plant in nature for nearly 28 million years prior to the advent of humans
- the cultivation of cannabis as one of India's foremost crops
- the plant being the most popular recreational drug for vast numbers of Indians who have always consumed it moderately and responsibly for thousands - especially the working classes - with an extremely low or negligible harm profile
Yet a species that believes that it decides who should exist in nature and who should not, and who, on the basis of this belief goes to the absurd extreme of banning a creation of nature, is likely to pay attention only if a situation is monetized and the monetary benefits of every action emphasized. So I will try to show some monetary benefits of removing the prohibition of cannabis in India. This is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg and based on very high level estimates. Some of the benefits cannot be quantified monetarily and may be too priceless to attach a monetary figure to. E.g. What would be the monetary value of cannabis-based biodegradable plastic replacing all the petrochemical based non-biodegradable plastic in use in India today? This and many other such benefits are beyond my means to currently put a value to. I have listed ad hoc benefits in other areas such as my blog – https:\\ravingkoshy.blogspot.com.
Various scientific and economic studies have detailed benefits of cannabis legalization in leading media and scientific publications. The legalization of cannabis in other parts of the world - specifically Canada and numerous US states - also provide ample scientific evidence of its benefits. Humans are only now starting to discover the applications and benefits of cannabis and they are already mind boggling. Some of the immediate benefits I see are as follows:
As affordable, accessible, versatile, natural medicine for universal healthcare
Cannabis was used in India in the past as natural medicine to treat a wide range of diseases. It was even termed the most important medicine in the Indian medicine cabinet by British physicians who discovered its use in India as medicine in the 19th century. The Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895 states - “Cannabis indica must be looked upon as one of the most important drugs of Indian Materia Medica.'” In the US, cannabis has been included as a treatment option for a wide range of illnesses which number more than 30 - including diseases like cancer, chronic pain, diabetes, PTSD, epilepsy, etc. Many Western countries, like Germany - which is the biggest medical cannabis market in Europe - are also using cannabis as medicine in a big way. In India, where the burden of health care is immense and where the health care system is dismal, the re-introduction of cannabis as versatile, safe and affordable natural medicine would place it within the reach of every single Indian, especially if homegrowing of the plant is permitted. Pricing ganja at Rs 1,000 a kilogram in the market - making it comparable to commodities like coffee and tea - along with permitting homegrowing, will enable nearly the entire population of India to access this valuable medicine. Persons in the remotest corners of the country will be able to access it, unlike the expensive and inaccessible forms of modern medicine and medical treatment. This would have the effect of introducing truly universal healthcare for nearly the entire Indian population, at almost no cost to the exchequer and the individual. The current dependency on China for nearly $150 billion worth of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can be significantly reduced if cannabis is adopted in the field of medicine. Currently, India struggles to allocate even 2% of its budget to healthcare, an amount which is itself woefully short of what the country requires. Even this 2% ends up in the pockets of the synthetic pharmaceutical industry and the medical industry that are designed to cater to the needs of the elites.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
As the backbone for sustainable economics
The cannabis industry was one of the leading job provides in the US in 2022, contributing approximately 450,000 jobs - more than most other industries. Cannabis was declared an essential service, along with food and medicine, during the Covid pandemic in 2020, in many US states that have legalized cannabis. Cannabis was ubiquitous in Indian society, until about 150 years ago, being used for nutrition, medicine, recreation and a wide variety of industrial applications . Being one of the most sustainable forms of economics, the plant has the potential to become the backbone of India's sustainable economic strategy in the coming years.
Considering the following - costs saved that are currently incurred through cannabis prohibition, which I estimated in a previous section at approximately Rs 17 lakh crores; costs saved through reduction in import of active pharmaceutical ingredients, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, petrochemicals, alcohol and tobacco; the revenues earned from international exports of indigenous cannabis varieties and allied products - it may not be a pipe dream to say that with the legalization of cannabis, the Indian economy can easily see an overall benefit, annually, of more than Rs 25 lakh crores. India's fiscal deficit, at the time of writing this, stood at approximately Rs 17 lakh crores. We could wipe out the entire deficit, and still have some money to spare for key areas like education, health and environment.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction
As a strategy to combat climate change
Cannabis is said to have numerous industrial applications ranging from textiles, automobile bodies, biodegradable plastics, paper, hemp-based capacitors, sustainable construction material, medicine, wellness products, food and beverages, fibers, animal feed, to name just a few applications. Before its prohibition, the cannabis plant was widely used for fiber, textiles, paper, construction, etc., besides as intoxicant and medicine. If the cannabis plant is explored and embraced as a potent sustainable and renewable industrial raw material, it is a significant step in the direction of reducing our carbon footprint, combating climate change and environmental destruction. It can significantly replace the harmful and unsustainable products created by today's petrochemical, fossil fuel, synthetic pharmaceutical, wellness and medical industries. Cannabis as an agricultural crop can bring in sustainability to agriculture, improve soil health, and reduce water and chemical fertilizer usage. It can replace environmentally damaging unsustainable crops like paddy, wheat, sugarcane and cotton in places where they struggle to grow. In a water stressed world, the cannabis plant is one of the most adaptable plants, having evolved over 28 million years through various conditions. It is more suitable for agriculture than rice, wheat, tobacco or cotton in water stressed areas, being more comparable to millets. Cannabis can sequester as much carbon as an equivalent area of tropical forests. The legalization of cannabis can provide valuable income for forest communities, further strengthening their roles as guardians of the forest.
One of the key uses of cannabis in India in the past was as a means of enduring harsh climatic conditions, especially heat stress. As a cooling and refreshing beverage, it enabled those living in extremely hot conditions to live, work, relieve fatigue and refresh themselves. Today, as the country heats up due to soaring temperatures, cannabis-based beverages can be valuable - especially for the most vulnerable sections of society – to combat heat stress. In addition to this, ganja and charas were known to help ward off infectious diseases in damp, humid conditions. As nutrition and medicine for various livestock – sheep, goats, cattle, poultry, etc., - cannabis can replace the harmful practices of using precious seafood as animal feed.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
As a safe recreational drug
With legalization of ganja, including its homegrowing, the plant will once again be available as a safe recreational drug for Indians. This would prove to be a very effective harm reduction mechanism available for Indian society, providing an alternative to the deadly legal drugs alcohol and tobacco, as well as the numerous legal and illegal synthetic drugs available - such as heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and synthetic pharmaceutical drugs – that have moved in to meet the demand created by ganja and charas prohibition. Considering that 1 crore 2.6 lakh people die every year due to alcohol and tobacco alone, that opioid use in India has increased four-fold since 2004 as per UNODC's 2020 World Drug Report, and that numerous others are affected in various ways due to illnesses as a result of these extremely harmful legal and illegal drugs that have replaced ganja and charas, it should be very obvious that ganja and charas as legal recreational drugs will be vastly beneficial for the physical and mental well-being of Indian society. One of Britain's eminent physicians of the 19th century, William O'Shaugnessey stated that - "As to the evil sequelæ so unanimously dwelt on by all writers, these did not appear to us so numerous, so immediate, or so formidable as many which may be clearly traced to over-indulgence in other powerful stimulants or narcotics, viz., alcohol, opium, or tobacco."
In many US states, where ganja and charas have been legalized, they are used as medical treatment for opioid, alcohol and methamphetamine addiction. Before tobacco was introduced in India by Europeans in the 17th century, Indians smoked bhang, ganja and charas which are much safer than tobacco. The government today pays lip service to tobacco control, even though it supports and promotes tobacco cultivation, earning significant revenue from tobacco. Smokers - who now have no other alternative to the harmful tobacco - have to put up with constant harassment and discrimination from law enforcement in the name of tobacco control, even though the state does nothing to provide alternatives to tobacco or curb its production. Currently the very situation that many experts in the past feared would happen - if ganja was curbed and prohibited in India - has happened, and that too in a much more aggressive way than ever imagined. Yet the government and policy makers still continue to keep ganja and charas prohibited, in spite of all the scientifc evidence emerging world wide.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P14: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Myths of Harmful Physical and Moral Effects; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms
As an additional agricultural crop for farmers
The availability of cannabis as an additional cash crop for Indian farmers - the majority of whom are poor small scale farmers - will be a huge boon for Indian agriculture. Before prohibition, ganja cultivation was practiced across the length and breadth of this country, with the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission stating in 1895, that “Ganja ranks as one of the superior crops” at a time when ganja cultivation had already been considerably reduced by the British administration. Cannabis can grow in many diverse conditions and is known to be especially suitable in water stressed situations, requiring just a few months to reach maturity. The price that cannabis could fetch the Indian farmer in the market could be a way out from the burden of loans, failed crops, climate change, and the increasing number of farmer suicides.
This would provide a sustainable way out for the Indian small-scale farmer. Cannabis as an agricultural crop would go a long way in reducing the unsustainable cultivation of rice, wheat, cotton, tobacco and sugarcane - to name just a few - that have been subsidized and promoted by the state to such a large extent in the country today that they are a death trap for all, including the farmer and the environment.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
To improve the efficiency of law enforcement
Despite all the efforts to eliminate ganja and charas from the market, they find their way all over through the black market. The black market has grown increasingly sophisticated, with the advent of the darknet, cryptocurrency, GPS-controlled drones, international drug cartels with sophisticated organization structures, etc. The black market meets the demands for narcotics, dealing in many dangerous drugs - including highly easy to manufacture but difficult to detect synthetic drugs - that have moved in to create the supply vacuum created by ganja and charas prohibition. Law and drug enforcement waste effort and resources by trying to curb the illegal cannabis trade while these more dangerous drugs thrive. Most drug and law enforcement drug seizures are dominated by ganja and charas numbers, while the dangerous synthetic drugs and their suppliers escape the radar. Keeping ganja and charas illegal, and the cost of enforcing prohibition, means that precious law enforcement resources are diverted and wasted on victimless crime, instead of focusing on much more critical areas such as violent crime, financial fraud, environmental crime, synthetic drug crime, etc. Law enforcement uses ganja and charas statistics to bloat performance data while on-ground effectiveness remains dismal. Most persons who are victims of cannabis related legal action are very poor farmers, minorities, indigenous communities and youth. The unjust experience with the legal system for growing a medicinal plant inherent to India is likely to turn these victims into hardened criminals and anti-social elements. In the decades since the restrictions and curbs on ganja and charas began, the number of people who have suffered through legal action has been too many. Completely legalizing cannabis will free law enforcement and the judiciary from a significant amount of work load that it currently faces, helping these entities to put their focus and resources on much more critical areas.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P6: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Police, Doctors, Magistrates and Lunatic Asylums Create Cannabis-Insanity Myth; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P18: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Exploring the Cannabis Causes Crime Myth ; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition; ANNEXURE P21: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Unheeded Warnings of Alcohol Harms; ANNEXURE P22: A Look at the NDPS Act 1985 from a Cannabis Perspective
To protect cannabis biodiversity
The varieties of cannabis that exist in India are surely numerous, given the vast geographical variations across the country. Most of these Indian cannabis varieties are natural, sun grown cannabis with minimal human intervention in their breeding, unlike in the West where breeding cannabis plants under artificial conditions - such as artificial lighting, excessive use of pesticides and fertilizers, etc. - has led to the survival of varieties with high psychotropic content, often at the cost of other potentially medicinal cannabis compounds such as cannabidiol, cannabichrome, cannabigerol, etc. The natural varieties of cannabis in India hold promise of vast medicinal and industrial benefits.
However, in the last 150 years, increasing regulation, and ultimately prohibition, has resulted in massive and indiscriminate extermination of cannabis plants all across the country. I term this as phytocide or plant genocide. We do not know how many precious indigenous varieties of cannabis have been lost forever, and how many are now on the verge of extinction. Legalization will help set up cannabis biodiversity protection measures - such as seed banks, nurseries, cooperative societies and propogation of precious varieties of Indian cannabis – on the lines of what is being done with other agricultural crops such as millets, tubers, herbs, etc. Communities with inherent knowledge of cultivating ganja, such as the indigenous communities, can be vital in regenerating and propagating precious varieties of ganja that now face extinction, if adequate support is provided to them.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
As food for the food chain
Cannabis seeds and oils offer a very important form of nutrition, comparable to millets places facing water stress, cannabis for nutrition could be a key driver for addressing hunger in a country that ranks among the worst nations in the world today in this regard. For India's poor and hungry, the plant which can grow in a wide variety of conditions, can provide easily accessible and affordable nutrition, much like millets. Hemp flour, hemp oil and various cannabis-based foods and beverages can provide India's poor and hungry the much needed levels of nutrition that they require.
The revival of cannabis across the country not only benefits humans but also many species of animals, birds and insects, who get valuable nutrition and medical benefits from the plant. Recent scientific studies corroborate the findings of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission that the residual biomass of cannabis cultivation provides valuable nourishment for livestock, in addition to enabling them to combat various diseases, much like in humans. It was common in India, in the past, to feed livestock cannabis produce and to use ganja to treat a variety of illnesses. The plant has been seen to help bee and bird populations prevent population collapse and survive adverse climate changes, thus increasing cross-pollination and their own population numbers.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
As a treasure chest for research
No other area offers more opportunity for research than cannabis today. With the discovery of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in humans and its interactions with phyto-cannabinoids in the 1990s, a whole new treasure chest of research opened up. The hundreds of cannabis compounds, and how they interact with the human body, besides the physiology of other animals, insects, birds, reptiles, etc., offers a treasure chest for research.
In the last few years, international research papers connected with cannabis have burgeoned. Research into the use of cannabis covers areas as diverse as medicine, industrial applications, social and anthropological studies, legal studies, plant research, sustainable development, agriculture, and so on. A number of leading universities in the West now offer research curriculum on cannabis. Countries like Israel and Canada have emerged as global leaders in cannabis research. For a country like India - the land of ganja - the legalization of cannabis will provide a tremendous boost to research. Currently, Indian research lags many countries in the world, with hardly any originality, relying on leading Western research bodies to provide guidance and direction. Globally, the illegal status of cannabis is one of the greatest bottlenecks to research on it. With legalization, Indian cannabis research can grow to be one of the most significant areas of growth, providing much needed impetus to science, industry, medicine, agriculture, sustainability, etc.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P7: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Methods of Cultivation; ANNEXURE P8: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Areas of Cannabis Cultivation and Wild Growth; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P10: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Conditions Suitable for Cannabis Cultivation; ANNEXURE P11: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Post-Harvest Processing, Packaging and Storage; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption ; ANNEXURE P17: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Notes on Chemical, Physiological and Biological Analyses of Indian Cannabis
As a unifying totem for Indian society
Ganja is used by all classes and castes of society. Ganja, before it was prohibited, was integral to nearly all religions in India. Ganja was grown and used across the length and breadth of the country. Ganja was an integral part of India's social and cultural life for thousands of years before it was prohibited. The Indian ganja legacy is equivalent to the European pub legacy when it comes to being a conduit for social gatherings and interactions, and a way of life. Legalizing ganja will make available a common ground on which the entire nation can unite, taking pride in one of India's most ancient, healthy and natural traditions, paving the way for unity in diversity in a nation increasingly divided on the basis of religion, economic status, social status, and a myriad of other divisive factors created by unscrupulous politicians, businessmen, religious orthodoxy, and bigoted sections of society. It will inject vibrancy, creativity, good health and contentment in an Indian society that has now been ravaged by unscrupulous elements, synthetic poisons and a dominating desire to procure wealth at all costs. It will once again ground Indian society in spirituality, helping India to scale the peaks of civilizational progress that it was renown for in the past, and to enable India to become the lighthouse to the world that many dream of, but few seem to be able to realize. Ganja is the proverbial elixir to renew the lifeblood of the nation, a nation suffering from stagnation, toxicity, delusion and decay.
Ganja and charas legalization will significantly aid India in vastly improving its rankings in the Human Development Index (HDI) and World Happiness Index, besides helping it to take big strides towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), an area where it currently occupies the lower rungs in terms of achieving targets. It will open a new chapter in sustainable economics, a much needed imperative as the world hurtles towards climate catastrophe. It will bring down India's carbon footprint and raise the standard of living of the majority of India's population, who barely can meet the basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, medicine and recreation. It will help further the ideals of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity enshrined in the Preamble to the Constitution of India.
For more information, please see ANNEXURE P1: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Social Usage, Gender and Age Demographics; ANNEXURE P2: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Asceticism - Eroticism Paradox of Ganja; ANNEXURE P3: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Religion of Ganja, God's Herb; ANNEXURE P4: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Regulation, Taxation and Revenue Systems in India; ANNEXURE P5: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Medical Uses for Humans and Other Animals; ANNEXURE P9: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Manner and Forms of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P12: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Classes that Consumed and Cultivated Ganja; ANNEXURE P13: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Findings on the Immediate Effects of Cannabis Consumption; ANNEXURE P15: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The 108 Names of Cannabis; ANNEXURE P16: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Trade and Movement; ANNEXURE P19: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: Consumption Trends, Amounts, Associated Costs and Addiction; ANNEXURE P20: Cannabis Usage in 19th Century India: The Public Opinion Farce and Near-Total Opposition to Ganja Prohibition
I have briefly touched upon some of the benefits of ganja and charas legalization here. The actual benefits are much more. More and more nations worldwide are starting to recognize the harms of prohibition, and starting the journey to legalization of ganja and charas once again. We too must, if for nothing else, but to save ourselves through the freeing of a plant of nature - a plant attributed to be the favorite of India's great god, Siva - from the absurd and unjust curbs of foolish humans.
Urgent actions for lawmakers and policy makers based on the Supreme Court's writ
The mandamus writ by the Supreme Court of India to the Government of India stating that the prohibition of ganja and charas is illegal and goes against the fundamental rights of the individual, as enshrined in the Constitution of India, will necessitate that the Government of India takes the following actions:
- Complete removal of all references to cannabis in all its forms - ganja, charas/hashish, THC, and all products and derivatives made from the cannabis plant - from the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985.
- Removal of all laws that prevent the creation and implementation of policies aimed at bringing all forms of cannabis back into the mainstream, including laws regarding cannabis cultivation, consumption, possession, trade, research, economics and business.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to grow any quantity of ganja and produce charas at home for personal consumption
- Ensuring freedom for every person to share any quantity of ganja and charas with whosoever desired through mutual consent.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to access ganja and charas, irrespective of the geographical location of the consumer, religion, gender, social or economic demographic.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to access ganja and charas of good quality, grown in a natural organic manner.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to procure ganja and charas at no cost or, in the worst case, at an affordable price. This price must be something that the poorest individual in the country can afford. Ideally it must be free for the poorest persons.
- Ensuring freedom for every person from legal harassment for growing, possession, sharing, selling, buying and consumption of ganja and charas.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to possess unlimited quantities of ganja and charas, be it for personal use or commercial use, just like any other agricultural commodity.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to consume ganja and charas in private.
- Ensuring availability of designated social spaces for consumption of cannabis.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to smoke ganja and charas in places where tobacco consumption is permitted.
- Ensuring freedom for every person to use ganja and charas in whatsoever fashion the person chooses, including making of ganja- and charas-based products for personal, external or internal, consumption.
- Ensuring freedom for any person to grow, possess and sell ganja and charas - without any restrictions or regulations on variety and quantity - in line with the current norms that exist for any other agricultural produce. This means that even the poorest person must be able to grow and sell his produce through all possible means. The ease of growing, producing and selling ganja and charas must be no different from the ease of growing and selling fruits, vegetables or any other agricultural produce. This is especially important, as the persons who must benefit on priority from ganja cultivation and charas production, and sales must be the poorest farmer or individual who sees ganja and charas as a way out of poverty or to supplement one's income. The benefit of ganja cultivation, charas production, and sales must go to the poorest and weakest sections of society, not the big farmers and high-end retailers and the rich who have been instrumental in ganja and charas prohibition and therefore responsible for the dismal state of the weaker sections of society.
- Formulation of policies for the immediate release of all persons in prison and undertrials for ganja and charas related activities. Expungement of all ganja and charas related criminal records.
- Formulation of policies for the realignment of law enforcement, excise functions and judiciary so that ganja and charas related activities are now considered as out of scope for these entities.
- Formulation of guidelines for organic cultivation of cannabis, without the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and for the disposal of by products following sustainable environmental standards and circular-economy-based approaches.
- Formulation of policies to protect small farmers, cottage industries, cooperatives, retailers and small businesses from big businesses and patents with regard to ganja cultivation and charas production, and prevention of unfair practices that aim to make profits and capture market at the expense of poor farmers, retailers, small businessmen and consumers.
- Formulation of policies that protect the cannabis plant and promote its biodiversity, especially with regard to indigenous varieties.
- Setting up of ganja seed banks with state and national level government support, and encouragement for farmers for the revival and propagation of as many varieties of ganja and charas as possible through agricultural cooperatives.
- Promotion, encouragement and support for all cannabis related businesses with the integration of industry, research, investment and startup ecosystems with special emphasis on all ecofriendly sustainable businesses.
- Formulation of policies regarding interstate and international trade of cannabis, especially ganja and charas.
- Formulation of policies for priority non-discriminatory support to cannabis businesses set up by minorities, indigenous communities, economically challenged communities, and those who have suffered the most through the prohibition of cannabis. Support includes banking, insurance, laws, government subsidies and funding
- Formulation of policies for supporting research into potential industrial, medical, social, economic and business applications of cannabis
- Formulation of policies for supporting cannabis based tourism, social consumption areas, services, etc.
- Formulation of policies for integrating cannabis as natural medicine in the field of health care to make it universally accessible and affordable
- Formulation of policies for the scientific research of the cannabis plant, its biology, history and uses
- Formulation of policies for ensuring that the retail price of ganja and charas is such that it is affordable for all sections of society, especially the poorest and the ones who need it the most medically
- Formulation of policies and support to indigenous communities for the cultivation of cannabis, and propagation of the knowledge possessed by indigenous communities regarding the cultivation of cannabis. Formulation of policies for the protection of the various indigenous varieties of cannabis that are in the possession of indigenous communities as well as the research into, revival and propagation of these varieties.
Vision
The vision that I have, with regard to ganja and charas legalization in India, is as follows:
The revival and propagation of the Cannabis plant, in all its varieties, in India so that:
- it is available to all in Indian society, irrespective of caste, creed, sex, economic and social status and, especially available to the minorities, indigenous peoples, and people classified as the socially and economically backward;
- it is once again a part of the economy, as an agricultural crop for farmers, and as raw material for sustainable industries, especially for the poorest and most backward persons, who wish to involve in any economic activity utilizing the natural plant and its products;
- it is once again a part of the sustainable web of life, forming a part of the natural environment, becoming a key part of the strategy for environmental rejuvenation and combating climate change;
- it forms once again the key part of Indian natural medicine as a safe, universal, affordable, accessible remedy. addressing a wide range of diseases, especially for the poorest and the most needy;
- all can enjoy the cannabis plant, just like any other agricultural commodity, without fear of legal action and coercion, especially the poorest, minorities and indigenous peoples, and so that the cannabis plant can be protected from indiscriminate and unscientific legal action in the form of extirpation and destruction;
- all the varieties of the cannabis plant present in India can be revived, protected and propagated to increase their natural biodiversity and to prevent their extinction;
- policies can be framed and implemented for the protection of the cannabis plant and the protection of the constitutional rights of its users.
Concluding Remarks
In conclusion, it is important for us to correct a terrible historic wrong that has deprived large numbers of Indians - the poorest and most vulnerable - of their fundamental rights to freedom of choosing their means of safe, healthy recreation, medicine, spirituality and occupation; an injustice that has forced them to take up - in the place of ganja and charas - expensive and dangerous alternatives made available to them by successive governments. It is also important to provide our farmers with an additional sustainable means of livelihood to bolster their failing crops. It is further important for governments and Indian industry to explore the potential sustainable paths that cannabis holds promise of, in the face of devastating climate change and environmental damage. Last, but not least, it is time for us to acknowledge that a plant created by nature 28 million years ago - and so widely enjoyed by man, animals, birds and insects for thousands of years - cannot be banned as if it was one of man's foolish inventions, or as if nature is a criminal for creating the plant. Banning nature is not an option, as it essentially means banning ourselves from this world.
4. Averment:
The present petitioner has not filed any other petition in any High Court or the Supreme Court of India on the subject matter of the present petition.
PRAYER
In the above premises, it is prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to perform the following actions:
i. The most important and urgent action is the mandamus writ by the Supreme Court of India that the prohibition of ganja and charas is illegal, as it goes against the Fundamental Rights of the Individual under Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25, 38, 43, 46 and 47 of the Constitution of India. This writ will pave the way for the legalization of ganja and charas in India.
ii. It is requested that the Supreme Court of India, based on the above writ, instruct the Government of India to make the necessary changes to laws in Parliament, on an urgent basis, that will make the legalization of ganja and charas in India a reality in practice, so that the changes to law reach the most affected parties, who in this case are the most vulnerable and poorest sections of Indian society, as well as the petitioner.
iii. to pass such other orders and further orders as may be deemed necessary on the facts and in the circumstances of the case.
FOR WHICH ACT OF KINDNESS, THE PETITIONER SHALL AS INDUTY BOUND, EVER PRAY.
FILED BY: Koshy T Abraham
PETITIONER-IN-PERSON
FILED ON: 06-June-2023
Supreme Court Order Dismissing the Writ Petition
