The Great Indian Marijuana Seeks Legalisation
Marijuana founds its traces from the holy Vedas which describes it as a source of happiness, joy-giver, liberator that was compassionately given to humans to help us attain delight and lose fear. It founds its application in recreation, medical, as well as in skin care industries and yet the sale, purchase and growth of Marijuana are completed illegal in the country apart from the state of Uttarakhand where only the cultivation of it is legalised.
Although, the first formal law which led to the prohibition of cannabis in India was brought in 1985 as The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act signing of UN’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty in 1961 led India to mark the drug as illegal. The treaty refers to drug addiction as “a serious evil for the individual [that] is fraught with social and economic danger to mankind”
However, it only led cultivation, sale and purchase of marijuana illegal but gave a major boost to its black market which expectedly has turned into a billion-dollar industry and India, considered as the sacred home to cannabis is surely missing a major chunk out of it.
An employee of an online media house believes marijuana shouldn't be prohibited as people will still mend out ways to get hold off it, or even if they don't, they will find even more harmful substance as an alternate. “No law can break a person's conscious choice. It's better to be legalized, so that abnormal rates of consumption can be traced, to further control it, instead of making a moral cage through law.” he further added.
Apart from the financial woes that India is facing due to the non-legalisation, it’s marijuana’s health benefits which need special attention of the orthodox Indian society. Marijuana has proven benefits in relieving pain, nausea, muscle spasms, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, low appetite, sleep problems, autism, epilepsy, etc. And rather than using natural drug benefits, our reliance on synthetic medicine has led to heavy outflux of money from the country.
The two major natural compounds present in Cannabis are the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and the CBD (cannabidiol). While the latter with more medicinal value is extracted from the hemp plant to manufacture gels, gummies, oils, supplements, extracts, etc., the former one poses the psychoactive properties of the plant. Also, the extracts of CBD help in various conditions like seizures, inflammation, bowel disorders, depressions, and nausea and THC’s variants are proven to provide positive effects in conditions like pain, insomnia, anxiety, and nausea.
The irony attached to the current trend of Marijuana usage is that ‘the country which gave marijuana to the world has abandoned its goodness’. Countries like Canada, Uruguay, and even several states of the US have uplifted the ban of the drug and are sincerely regulating it because of its several benefits. India, on the other hand, is not even wondering of a move which can bring more positivity in society apart from the economic gains it can achieve.
