There are very few subjects on which we display as much ignorance and hypocrisy as cannabis. Yes, cannabis: The plant that gives us the bhang we consume at Holi, regarding it as part of our tradition.
For some reason we rarely make the connection between bhang and what is often called marijuana in the West and which we associate with hippies and rock musicians. In fact they come from exactly the same plant.
Though we think of western cannabis users as only smoking the stuff in joints (marijuana cigarettes), while we consume our bhang in thandai and other liquids, that view is now outdated. The current global boom in cannabis includes other forms of consumption: Edibles, oils etc.
Our ignorance about cannabis allows motivated campaigns to be launched against individuals who are portrayed as dangerous druggies because they may have consumed cannabis.
One example came only a few years ago when Sameer Wankhede who headed the Mumbai office of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) launched a so-called campaign against drug use in Bollywood with the active encouragement of many TV channels.
The framing and imprisonment of Shahrukh Khan’s son (on whose person no cannabis was ever found anyway ) was just one part of it. Stars were summoned by the NCB and it was made out that they were depraved drug addicts because they may have smoked the odd joint. The TV channels also told us that Rhea Chakraborty may have had something to do with actor Sushant Singh’s death because she had discussed CBD oil – which we were told was a dangerous drug – with a friend.
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All of this was based on lies or misconceptions. The media and unscrupulous law-enforcement officials got away with it because we hardly ever talk about cannabis even though it is produced and sold legally in many parts of India.
Moreover, the government itself is involved in the purchase and distribution of cannabis. Indians have long been able to buy cannabis products from the government or from government licensed shops. And now you can buy cannabis products from neighbourhood chemist shops entirely legally.
You may already know about cannabis and its role in Indian tradition, but here’s a little background. Cannabis is a plant that grows wild in many parts of India. In much of the rest of the world it is cultivated by farmers and advances in cultivation techniques have led to the growth of an entirely legal cannabis farming sector in such countries as the US.
The global symbol for cannabis is the distinctive leaf which is often used to extract bhang. But much of the cannabis sold around the world also comes from the flower. Without going into the complex chemistry of the plant and its compounds, it is fair to say there are two major chemical constituents of cannabis. One is THC, which is the part that gives you a high and the other is CBD which is used to relax the body and ease anxiety in the brain and does not normally give you a high.
Medicine has long been fascinated by cannabis. Even Queen Victoria used cannabis to ease her menstrual pains. In the second half the 20th century however as recreational use of cannabis increased (mostly through joints or cannabis cigarettes), it began to be regarded mostly as a recreational drug and associated with the counter-culture.
Over the last 30 years, that view has been revised. While recreational cannabis is legal in many countries – Canada, Thailand, Belgium Spain, Portugal and much of Latin America— it is also been decriminalised in many other European countries and several American states. Even in such straightlaced countries as Russia and Switzerland, recreational cannabis for personal use does not attract the attention of the law.
The laws governing the consumption of CBD oil (which Rhea Chakraborty was accused of discussing) are even more liberal than cannabis laws in general. It is legal in much of the world because it does not give you a high and it is sold at chemists and health food shops abroad quite openly. In the UK, for example, all major High Street chemists (like Boots) display and sell CBD products.
I’m pretty sure that senior officials of the Indian NCB know all this which may be one reason why Wankhede was booted out and the bogus prosecutions dropped. But what I find most interesting is how little the average citizen knows about the legal situation in India.
Clearly the state cannot put people in jail for consuming bhang – the prisons would overflow during Holi – so its consumption cannot be a criminal act. Some people used to take the line that because bhang can be made from the leaves of the plant and not the flower, it is an acceptable form of cannabis.
But that distinction is rarely made these days. Many state governments sell cannabis quite legally and of late, there is a new category of licensing. Because of cannabis’s pain relieving properties it is a component of ayurvedic medicine.
While the term medical cannabis is widely used in the West, we in India are not aware that medical cannabis is also readily available here as part of the ayurvedic tradition.
Cannabis-derived tinctures (such as oil) and edible medications (capsules, gummies etc) can be sold quite legally by chemists to anyone with a prescription from an ayurvedic or conventional doctor.
All of this is entirely legal and manufacturers are licensed by the Ayush ministry to make cannabis products. More and more doctors, in keeping with international practice, are now willing to prescribe cannabis products because they have medical benefits.
I spoke to Samisht Sehgal, who runs Qurist, a medical cannabis company whose products are available at my local chemist. The company has been in business for four years and Sehgal says his medications have helped 30,000 patients suffering from sleep disorders, the after- effects of surgery and anxiety.
Because I sounded sceptical, he sent me the company’s licence from the Ayush department to indicate that what he was doing was completely legal.
At present it is small companies like his that have entered the market. But it is only a matter of time before Big Pharma gets into the act.
And when that happens, it will, hopefully end the ill-informed hysteria about cannabis products and CBD oil. And it may well put an end to the kind of rampage that Sameer Wankhede went on.
