Further on Ganja, Bhang, Charas etc.
Times of India
of 11 November 2012 has given detailed information on the subject.
Cannabis indica
leaves, buds and flowers give what are commonly known as bhang, hashish
(charas),
And marijuana (grass or ganja), also known as pot, weed,
hash etc. Two American
states, Washington and Colorado , have decided
to legalize recreational use of
marijuana(ganja). 19 US states have already legalized marijuana for medical
purposes. India
for millennia have used them for recreational
purposes, but
succumbing to US pressure in 1985 enacted the Narcotic Drugs
and Psychotropic
Substances Act which clubs marijuana, hashish and bhang with
hard drugs like
smack, heroin, cocaine, and crack, and banned them all. This
poorly thought out act
has led to corruption and harassment of ordinary people. It is also thought that this act has has
pushed the entire trade from peddling grass to smack, and worse to higher
profits, and creating a real drug problem which was not there earlier. A respectable opposition leader who has been a Minister in the Union
government served (diluted) opium water to the guests who came for a marriage
ceremony at his place. The matter did not get worse that it was soon discovered
that
what was done was a customarily done thing in that part of
the country. Whereas I am not
carrying a brief for opium as it is addictive, but certainly
for cannabis products as they
are neither addictive nor harmful. Tetrahydrocannabino and
cannabidiol affect certain brain regions causing relaxation,
introspection,lowering of worry and leads to hunger and sleep. The effect
reportedly lasts for 2 to 3 hours if it is smoked (charas and ganja) and upto
24 hours if ingested (bhang). It is also the third most consumed recreational
drug after alcohol and tobacco.
Marijuana has been found to have positive effects in
diseases like migraine, multiple sclerosis, asthma, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s
disease, alcoholism, insomnia glaucoma, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Please do not be misled into thinking that the large scale
use of bhang during Holi or the bhang which is
sold by almost all the thandai-sellers in Varanasi
is illegal. NDPS Act 1985 excludes leaves and seeds of cannabis from the ambit
of illegality. Thus even for hashish and marijuana, if it is
proved that it is made from leaves and seeds of the plant, it will not attract the penal provisons of the Act. It can be said
however, that for the Narcotics
Control Board or the local police it is difficult to prove the use of buds and
flowers as the plant grows wild in many parts of the country, especially the terai region of the Himalayas . In both
Dehradun and Darbhanga I have seen it growing wild in open lands.
TOI report has also given three lists: the first of those
countries that have decriminalized, and relaxed either partially or fully the
use of cannabis products. This contains Argentina ,
Australia , Belgium , Brazil ,
Cambodia , Canada , Chile ,
Colombia , Cyprus , Czech
republic , Ecuador ,
Estonia , Iran , Israel ,
Mexico , Netherlands , Peru ,
Poland , Portugal , Spain ,
Switzerland , Turkey , Uruguay ,
Venezuela
and the United States (?). The second list is of States which still have
cannabis in the illegal category. These are, Austria ,
Bulgaria , China , Cuba ,
Denmark , Ethiopia , France ,
Germany , Greece , Hong Kong ,
Japan , Malaysia , New
Zealand and Sweden . The third list is of the countries where the use is illegal, but infringement tolerated,
viz, Egypt , Finland , Italy ,
Jamaica , INDIA , Norway ,
Pakistan , Russia , Sri Lanka ,
and UK .
Considering that about 119 to 224 million of adult world
population (2.6 to 5 per cent) use
cannabis, it is high time that India also comes in the first category, especially when even the US
which pressurized India
to enact the Act is also veering round to relaxing the penal provisions against
cannabis products. Bam Bhole!
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