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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