Thoughts on Draft Legal Cannabis Policy for India

Legalize ganja aka marijuana aka cannabis aka bhang aka hashish in India. Make it legal for 21 years and above if you're really concerned about the youth who will probably be better off with ganja than with tobacco or alcohol or pharmaceutical drugs including the banned ones.

Allow an individual to grow around 6 plants for personal use and a household to grow up to 15 plants. Allow commercial cultivation just like any other crop or produce without differentiation. Set up systems to procure additional produce and make it available in the open market at market rates. Make the ganja available to the common man like me through the same channels that vegetables and fruits are currently available i.e. HOPCOMs, pushcart vendors, etc. just like the various kinds of leafy green vegetables and herbs.

Edibles, confectioneries, beverages, etc can be produced by creative entrepreneurs in our thriving food startup communities. Make smoking cannabis legal in cafes following a license based approach if required. It will go very well with our growing food and beverage industries. Use of hemp and hemp based products should be revived and promoted. All this will give a good organic boost to Startup India. Doing this will also provide food for creativity to other startup ventures and good organic mental fertilizers for Indian companies in their midlife and dying stages. Researchers and pharma companies, please research the topic, it should open out a lot of new opportunities. This can be used to boost affordable healthcare for all. Free availability of the herb will also aid arts and craftsmanship. This should go a significant way in taking people's minds off creating products and services that are destructive in nature and to nature.

Taxation on revenues earned can give our governments significant funding so that it doesn't need to resort to any sort of coercive tactics towards society.

Ingesting some of the herb will help give clearer vision (20/20 by 2020?) to our society, its leaders, authorities, public servants, basically anyone who has the desire to think bigger, wiser, smarter, more peacefully, more in line with nature and more long term.


Related articles
Some reasons to legalize cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/07/some-reasons-to-legalize-ganja.html

Cannabis legalization - Will Bengaluru be the second Indian city to legalize?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/marijuana-legalization.html

A twig of ganja economics for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/ganja-economics-for-india.html

Recreation is Medicine with cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/12/recreation-is-medicine.html 

Of freedom and captivity
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/09/of-freedom-and-captivity.html


Cannabis and the Environment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-environment.html


Cannabis as Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-medicine.html

Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-for-recreational-purposes.html

Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-social-usage-of-cannabis.html

No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html

A Twig of Ganja Economics for India

I was reading in today's newspaper (DH) that there are roughly 3,00,000 persons in India's prisons. The average cost of housing and feeding a prisoner in roughly Rs 30,000 per year as per the newspaper article. This is not counting the cost associated with time spent by the police machinery to investigate, arrest and detain the individual as well as the time spent by the courts to conduct the trial and put the prisoner in jail. The additional cost that this adds will be the time spent by the various persons in the legal machinery who are involved in the process of incarcerating the individual translated into a portion of the salaries paid to each of them. I believe that considering these additional costs, roughly at least Rs 1,00,000 is closer to the actual cost to the state of arresting and imprisoning an individual in our jails for 1 year. Taking a rough estimate that approximately 40% of these prisoners are in jail for ganja related crimes, this makes about 1,20,000 prisoners. The cost to the system and hence to the tax payer of this exercise by the state of implementing ganja related legal controls is then approximately Rs 1,200 crores per annum.

If, on the other hand, ganja cultivation was recognised as agriculture (which is finally just what it is contrary to what different parties would like to say based on their flawed or dishonest perspectives), each of these 1,20,000 prisoners rotting away in jail could be (based on a very, very, conservative estimate) growing about 20 kgs of ganja per head per annum. This is saying maybe 10 plants per person in a year and you can see the immense potential that this number is hiding. If you  conservatively value ganja at Rs 30,000 per kg we are talking of revenues of Rs 6,00,000 per person. If the state taxed this income at 20%, this would be a revenue of Rs 1,20,000 per person and a total revenue of Rs 1,440 crores per year for the state.

So economically we are talking about an absurd, outdated and prejudiced law that is costing the tax payer a loss of Rs 1,200 crores per annum (at a conservative estimate) when it should be making at least a revenue of Rs 1,440 crores per annum to the national exchequer (at a very, very conservative estimate). All this calculation is just based on the prison population of our country and not the 120 crore persons who currently inhabit India and of whom at least a few lakhs of persons would take up legal ganja cultivation as farmers if the hostile environment to this form of agriculture was removed. If you are thinking that this amount of ganja will not be consumed in this country, I am sure that many hundred times this amount of ganja is currently being produced and consumed locally and globally with the money going into the hands of criminals and unscrupulous persons. As for exporting it, this plant has the potential of possibly being our number one export one day given our beautiful indigenous varieties. Make in India will do much better environmentally, psychologically as well as economically making ganja rather than guns and cars for the world's elite. Could the CAG or whoever is responsible please look into this as soon as possible?

Related articles
Some reasons to legalize cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/07/some-reasons-to-legalize-ganja.html

Cannabis legalization - Will Bengaluru be the second Indian city to legalize?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/marijuana-legalization.html

Thoughts on draft legal cannabis policy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/thoughts-on-draft-legal-marijuana-policy.html


Recreation is Medicine with cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/12/recreation-is-medicine.html 

Of freedom and captivity
http://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/09/of-freedom-and-captivity.html


Cannabis and the Environment
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-environment.html


Cannabis as Medicine
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-as-medicine.html

Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-for-recreational-purposes.html

Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-social-usage-of-cannabis.html

Cannabis Legalization: Will Bengaluru be the Second Indian City?

 

Many of the points that the following article - https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24834-what-colorados-cannabis-experiment-will-teach-us/ suggests, that need to be reviewed post cannabis legalization in Colorado, can now be revisited five years down the line. Funding for school education, increased revenue through legal cannabis cultivation and retail sales, reduced costs to law enforcement of implementing cannabis prohibition, reduction in the consumption of alcohol and tobacco (possibly in pharmaceutical and hard drugs as well), drops in crime rates, less inmates in jail due to cannabis related arrests are some of the positive effects that have been reported at various times from different reports emerging from Washington, Colorado, etc in the recent past. More should be emerging as further studies are done provided the governments in these places don't decide to derail things in the near future. 

In India, Varanasi (that most ancient and mystical of cities) seems to be the only place which has enjoyed continuous legal availability of cannabis, in the form of bhang (crushed cannabis leaf based lassi and thandais) for its citizens and tourists, and as hashish and ganja for its sadhus over an unbroken period of thousands of years. The rest of the country is not so lucky, especially after the inclusion of cannabis in the 1985 NDPS Act, based on arm twisting of the then central government by the United States in exchange for its twenty pieces of silver. Of course, this was the last nail in the coffin, prepared and laid out in the 19th century by the British rulers in India.

The irony of the fact is that at least 38 US states have legalized cannabis for medical use so far. The federal US government however continues to keep cannabis in the Schedule 1 list of banned substances saying that it has no medicinal value. The list of US states that have legalized adult recreational cannabis is available here. All these states have legalized cannabis for adult recreational use, aimed specifically at improving public health, ensuring equity,  reducing crime, decreasing the black market, improving law enforcement, reforming criminal justice, improving the economy, agriculture and industry, to name just a few reasons, while India still continues to jail, restrict and punish its users and destroy the plant should not be lost on anyone.  Also the fact that the UK was the largest producer, stockholder and exporter of cannabis in 2019, as per the International Narcotics Control Board.

Which will be the first state in India to legalize recreational use once again? Will our beloved Bengaluru be the first city to legally embrace the second coming of cannabis? The time is ripe...

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Cannabis Laws
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Cannabis and Crime
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Cannabis Advocacy
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Cannabis and Tobacco
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Cannabis and Methamphetamine
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Cannabis and Opioids
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Cannabis and Harm Reduction
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Cannabis and Synthetic Cannabinoids
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The History of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-history-of-cannabis.html

Thoughts on draft legal cannabis policy
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/thoughts-on-draft-legal-marijuana-policy.html

Ganja Economics for India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/10/ganja-economics-for-india.html

Recreation is Medicine with cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2017/12/recreation-is-medicine.html

Of freedom and captivity
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Cannabis and the Environment
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Cannabis as Medicine
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Cannabis for Recreational Purposes
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Cannabis and Research
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/cannabis-and-research.html

The Business of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-business-of-cannabis.html

The Economics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-economics-of-cannabis.html

The Legality of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-legality-of-cannabis.html

The Politics of Cannabis
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-politics-of-cannabis.html

The Social Usage of Cannabis
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No medicinal value?
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-medicinal-value.html



Cannabis and Washington
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Cannabis and California
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Cannabis and Illinois
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Cannabis and Cocaine
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Cannabis and Benzodiazepines
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Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

 

Cannabis and Social Consumption Areas
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Cannabis Tourism
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19th Century usage of cannabis as medicine by Indian physicians
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References to medicinal cannabis in ancient texts
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The Politician

The political class may have served some benefit, if any at all, in the early days of this nation's formation by creating a constitution albeit by borrowing from multiple sources. Since then the class has been largely useless to society and nature thriving on feeding off the nation's resources to fatten itself. Over time it has become more and more harmful and dangerous to society and the freedom of the individual.

Some of the harmful actions of the political class include:

• dividing society on the basis of religion, economic status, culture so as to further the goals of the party and its leaders. 
• using the police, army, intelligence units and other organizations to carryout vendetta and silence opponents 
• bribing, coercing people, manipulating technology and media and horsetrading to win elections. 

Yet we the people cannot think of a way out of this. The mass herd mentality is our current only way of thinking. We need a ruler aka public servant to give us a feeling of security, that things are in control and that we have appointed worthy individuals to safeguard our freedom. Are these individuals really doing so or blindly driving society to its doom, time will tell. No one will be more to blame than us the voters, for the blind, naive way in which we have relinquished our freedoms to individuals and organizations who care for nothing more than fattening their own bellies. 

Will this nation one day be mature enough to dare to experiment with a 5 or 10 year period without politicians (political holiday) just to see what happens or are we addicted to them? I suspect that just like a home with fewer servants makes each individual within more responsible, self reliant and healthier, a nation with fewer public servants (who once elected don the mantle of modern rulers) will be more self reliant, responsible and healthier. Not to mention the vast amounts of money saved in terms of running and maintaining the election machinery, reduced conflicts and agitations due to party affiliations and reduced corruption. A general redirection of energy from the obsession with politics to self improvement and self governance through removing this redundant, and increasingly harmful, layer may simplify things vastly and bring about a better new balance in the Indian human society and individual is my current thinking. 

Departments and institutions have evolved and exist for all conceivable facets of our lives today with their policies, rules of functioning, checks and balances. Do we need ministries on top of that with individuals having little or no expertise coming in to manage them for short periods of time?  Putting our heads together and deciding what are the key institutions that need to exist at the national level for the long term well being of the nation is sufficient. After 70 years of existence as a nation, I am sure that we can figure out what is essential and what is not. Education, health, sports, arts, agriculture, environment are some of the essential institutions i would say. Ensuring that the right individuals run and work in these institutions and departments will anyway be critical for the self interest and long term survival of these bodies. 

Knowledge of the constitution and the rights of a citizen is adequate knowledge for each Indian citizen to self govern oneself, make the right decisions and understand where one's boundaries lie and to build and live in an intelligent, harmonious, just and peace loving society. Education that emphasizes this should build a society daring enough to take up the experiment. If the experiment fails, then we can bring back the politician and all of us will be aware of the pros and cons when we go to vote the next time. The way to a stable and intelligent society of the future lies somewhere along these lines I believe..

Below, in italics, are some thoughts  I put down during one of our frequent, humongous and meaningless elections of politicians to represent us:

The politician has a very long way to go before he gets to represent me. First he needs to show me objectives and results in the following key performance areas (not in any particular order) before I even consider making him my representative

•  disarmament
•  ganja legalization
•  environment
•  sustainable economics
•  harmony and peace with all neighbours
•  simplicity and honesty in personal life
•  legal reforms
•  equality and right of freedom of the individual
•  political reforms and accountability
•  10% budget allocation each to
•  education
•  health
•  sports
•  arts

Considering the above areas and where we stand now, I don't expect to be exercising my right to vote and electing any representative for myself any time soon  


Related articles:
Political Revamp
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2018/05/political-revamp.html

Vision of a new India
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2012/03/vision-of-new-india.html