This will help clarify the issue for you. Instead of targeting the religious angle it is important to look at it as a psychotropic drug and its effects on the human mind vis- a -vis other addictive substances.
Decriminalization of Cannabis in India by Naresh Gupta
ABSTRACT
We live in a country where government owned shops in holy cities like Varanasi sell cannabis in the form of bhang. This essay seeks to cover various dimensions of this topic from the medicinal and religious use of cannabis in Ancient India to its widespread use under the British raj and present situation under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act which forced drug dealers to switch from selling ganja to selling smack and other hard drugs. It further seeks to give an elaborate perspective by taking into consideration views of Indian Government officials from Narcotics Control Bureau and AIIMS and Government Reports from various other countries including the Indian Hemp Drugs Commision Report.
The authors have focussed on the scientific aspect and chemical theory of Cannabis taken from various medical journals which shows that THC has mild to moderate analgesic effects and its use is much less dangerous than tobacco, prescription drugs, and alcohol in social harms, physical harm, and addiction. The authors have also focussed on evidence and data collected by various governmental and non-governmental organisations indicating positive effects of decriminalisation of cannabis.
Further the essay suggests decriminalization of cultivation, possession, trade and consumption of drugs made from Cannabis Plant in small quantities using the Portuguese model which comprises of necessary preventive and educational activities where drug users identified by law enforcement agencies will be referred to the Drug Addiction Review Judge. It promotes the fundamental notion of "fighting the disease, not the patients"
Keywords: Decriminalization, cannabis, bhang, scientific, criminal, hemp, commission, medical.
INTRODUCTION
"In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care."[1]
17 years ago, All India Institute for Medical Sciences, Delhi (AIIMS), conducted a national workshop on "Cannabis-Health Damage and Legislative Options" in which medical professionals concluded that "cannabis does not have adverse health effects, it gave recommendations to the Home Ministry to reconsider existing laws for drugs made from the female Cannabis Sativa plant i.e. ganja, charas and bhang".[2] At the same time, A.K. Srivastava, Joint Director, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said: "we have no objection to making changes in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act), he further added that cannabis grows wild and burning it down has been a futile exercise, you burn it and it grows back in a year. [3]
These aforesaid mentioned reactions were recorded on the 10th Anniversary of the NDPS Act which was a poor law that clubbed cannabis, hashish and bhang with hard drugs like smack, heroin and cocaine and banned them all. Most drug dealers switched from selling ganja to selling smack and other hard drugs. This was so because while the risk was the same, the profits from selling heroin were several times higher.[4] The NDPS Act did more bad than good.
The sad part was not only we criminalized use of all drugs but we also failed to do this systemically or by taking medical opinion into consideration, in fact the British in the 1890's did a better job the us when they set up the Indian hemp Commision.
BACKGROUND
Since 1961, the US has been campaigning for a global law against all drugs, both hard and soft. India objected to this campaign and the draft of single convention which included the seeds and leaves in the definition of cannabis,[5] due to use of cannabis leaves in making bhang. It was excluded later. Hence, the traditional use of bhang in India could continue.[6]
In most of the countries consumption of any product made out of cannabis plant is illegal, but Indian law surprisingly allows use of cannabis leaves in preparation of bhang, in fact the government owned and licensed shops sell bhang throughout the country.
Large tracts of cannabis grow unchecked in the wild in many states such as West Bengal, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.[7] Moreover, Hashish has been used for medicinal and religious purposes for thousands of years[8] and was sold in government shops during the times of the British Raj and in independent India until the 1980's.[9] It is still being sold today.
2.1. HISTORICAL / MEDICAL
The use of bhang between the fifth and twelfth century is frequently mentioned in dictionaries, and the names used would seem to show that its use as an intoxicant was then known. In the Rajanighantu of Narahari Paandita, A.D. 1300, the effects of hemp on man are described as excitant, heating, astringent: it destroys phlegm, expels flatulence, induces costiveness, sharpens the memory, and excite appetite. In the Carngadharasamhita, a medical work, the date of which is unknown, but which must have been compiled during the Muhammadan period of Indian history, bhang is specially mentioned as an excitant.[10]
In 19th Century clinical trials carried out by physicians on Indian patients at that time showed it to be a" useful anodyne, hypnotic and antispasmodic. According to the Indian Hemp Drug Commission, bhang was considered as a refreshing beverage corresponding to beer in England and moderate indulgence in it was attended with less injurious consequences than similar consumption of alcohol in Europe.[11]
During the period that followed the report of these early observers, cannabis was used for its analgesic and hypnotic effects in such affections as asthma, neuralgia, tinnitus, dysmenorrhoea, muscular and joint pains, etc. It was also used to relieve the lightning pains of tubes, fornication, numbness, paraesthesia, convulsions, etc.[12]
Bhang and ganja are prescribed extensively by Hakims and Vaidyas in bowel complaints and are recommended as appetizers, as nervous stimulants and as a source of great staying-power under conditions of severe exertion or fatigue. [13] Several recognized medical capabilities of cannabis leaves are:
o Pulverized dried leaves are used as snuff "for clearing the brain".
o The juice extracted from the leaves is applied to the head to remove dandruff and vermin.
o Dropped into the ear it is said to allay pain.
o It is also believed to destroy worms.
o It checks the discharge from the intestines in diarrhoeal conditions and also the urethral discharge in gonorrhoea.
Cannabis preparations are popularly used as household remedies in the treatment of many minor ailments. A mild beverage made from bhang leaves is believed to sharpen the appetite and help the digestion. Religious mendicants who roam throughout India often carry bhang with them and use it for all sorts of gastrointestinal and rheumatic troubles from which they frequently suffer on account of exposure to inclement weather. [14]
2.2. RELIGIOUS
Reference to cannabis drugs is found in the classical literature as well as in old medical works of many countries in the world. In Indian literature the earliest reference to the word "bhang" occurs in the Atharva Veda, which, according to western scholars, dates as far back as 2000 to 1400 B.C. Whether the term was used at that time to mean only a particular species of a sacred grass, or the true cannabis plant, is an open question.[15]
The cannabis plant is regarded by the Hindus as holy, and the origin of this conception can be traced to the Vedic period. In the Atharva Veda, the plant is described as a sacred grass, and the guardian angel of mankind is supposed to reside in its leaves. In Bengal, for instance, the custom still persists among certain classes of offering a beverage prepared from the leaves of the cannabis plant to the various family members and to guests present on the last day of Durga Puja (Vijaya Dasmi) which is the biggest Hindu festival in that state.[16]
According to the Indian Hemp Commision, at the Shivratri festival, and on almost all occasions before it, not only that ganja is offered to the god but is also consumed by all classes of the worshippers and these customs are so intimately connected with their worship that they may be considered to form in some sense an integral part of it and there was abundant evidence before the Commission. [17]
SCIENTIFIC DISCUSSION CHEMICAL THEORY/ EFFECTS
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the principal psychoactive constituent of the cannabis plant which has mild to moderate analgesic effects.[18] According to a 2006 UK Government report, using cannabis is much less dangerous than tobacco, prescription drugs, and alcohol in social harms, physical harm, and addiction.[19] No evidence exists that anyone has ever died of a cannabis overdose.[20] The ratio of cannabis material required to produce a fatal overdose to the amount required to saturate cannabinoid receptors and cause intoxication is approximately 40,000:1[21] whereas for alcohol it is between 4:1 and 10:1.[22]
"There are no deaths from cannabis use. Anywhere. You can't find one," said Dr. Lester Grinspoon, professor emeritus at Harvard Medical School. Believe it: In 10,000 years of known use of cannabis, there's never been a single death attributed to marijuana.[23]
3.1. EFFECTS
According to the Indian Hemp Commission Cannabis doesn't cause any serious mental or physicals effects:
Effects Opinion on Effects
Physical The moderate use of hemp drugs appears to cause no physical injury and doesn't cause irreversible health or social damage even if used on a long-term basis. [24]
Mental The moderate use of hemp drugs produces no injurious effects on the mind.[25]
The commission also concluded that:
Total prohibition of the cultivation of the hemp plant for narcotics, and of the manufacture, sale, or use of the drugs derived from it, is neither necessary nor expedient in consideration of their ascertained effects, of the prevalence of the habit of using them, of the social and religious feeling on the subject, and of the possibility of its driving the consumers to have recourse to other stimulants or narcotics which may be more deleterious (Chapter XIV, paragraphs 553 to 585).
Bhang is the Joy-giver, the Sky-filler, the Heavenly- Guide, the Poor Man's Heaven, the Soother of Grief. No god or man is as good as the religious drinker of bhang. The supporting power of bhang has brought many a Hindu family safe through the miseries of famine. To forbid or even seriously restrict the use of so gracious an herb as the hemp would cause widespread suffering and annoyance and to large bands of worshipped ascetics, deep-seated anger. It would rob the people of a solace on discomfort, of a cure in sickness, of a guardian whose gracious protection saves them from the attacks of evil influences."
These conclusions not only reiterate that cannabis has no malicious effect on physical and mental health but also point out that how ironic the current situation is that the British Government didn't attempt any prohibition on the cannabis plant so as not to hurt the sentiments of the Indian people; The plant was later prohibited much later, by our own Indian Government.
The Lancet, a respected medical journal, in its November '95 issue commented in an editorial that "smoking of cannabis, even long term, is not harmful to health yet this widely-used substance is illegal just about everywhere." It further went on stating that the new evidence is in fact nothing new and merely confirms the conclusions drawn by the Royal Hemp Commission in 1895 that cannabis products had benign effects and that they caused no irreversible health or social damage even if used on a long-term basis. Reversible intoxication also occurs with cannabis which temporarily affects motor functions. But this also happens with alcohol intake.[26] This opinion was also quoted in a 1997 AIIMS publication[27]
Also, talking about the addiction from marijuana Dr R C Jiloha, director and head of psychiatry at G B Pant Hospital and in-charge of de-addiction says: "Very few patients come to us for marijuana de-addiction. The drug is less addictive compared to heroine, crack cocaine or even alcohol. It doesn't cause body ache, abdominal pain and other physical symptoms.[28]
3.2.SOFT DRUG
The NDPS Act itself recognizes cannabis as a soft drug. It recommends a lighter sentence for possession of both ganja and hashish compared to the jail term prescribed for violations involving opiate drugs, like heroin and its impure form-brown sugar. While possession of five grams of charas would invite a year's sentence and 500 grams of ganja would put you in jail for six months, a heroin or morphine rap could mean sentences up to 15 years and in severe cases of trafficking, even the death penalty.[29]
Various findings been made by organisations and individuals have time and again proved that cannabis is a soft drug, one such finding was made by Devendra Mohan (Head, Department of Psychiatry) at AIIMS who concluded that:
"When compared to alcohol I would say that cannabis is less harmful. It is nonaddictive and less anti-social. With alcohol, crisis behaviour probability is higher and well documented in accidents, domestic violence and sexual crimes. However, you don't associate such behaviour with cannabis abuse
We are not saying that you should advertise Indian cannabis as the best in the world on STAR TV. What we are saying is that the Government need not take the view it has taken on a drug which is relatively less harmful and which has been consumed in this country for centuries."[30]
The following scientific graphs further support such conclusions including the ones made by the Indian Hemp Commission and various other medical and legislative authorities that cannabis has moderate mental and physical effects, has very low dependence probability, and definitely is less harmful than tobacco and alcohol which still remain the most abused psychoactive drugs in the world.
These graphs show that how marijuana ranks only moderate/low in dependence potential, also it is almost negligible in lethal dose, which ironically in turn is much less than caffeine, alcohol and various other widely used psychoactive drugs and is lesser than alcohol and tobacco in physical harm.
PROPOSED POLICY CHANGE
Taking into perspective the legislative, religious, social and spiritual history of cannabis, along with its widespread use in the country, there is a need to change the current policy i.e. to decriminalize the use cannabis in India.
Decriminalisation is often mistakenly understood to mean complete removal or abolition of possession offences, or confused with 'legalisation' (legal regulation of drug production and availability). Under decriminalisation regimes, possession and use of small amounts of drugs are still unlawful but not criminal offences.[33]
While many people within the government fear about the negative impact of such a policy change, the evidence and data collected by various governmental and non-governmental organisations indicates otherwise and that any such fear is based in prejudice. Countries like Portugal and Spain have successfully decriminalised possession of small amounts of some drugs[34].The following figure and table shows why and how this policy should be implemented. It also provides some justifications to such a policy.
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Decriminalization of Cannabis in India by Naresh Gupta - | RostrumLegal.Com
Cannabis is the foundation of the real religion and understanding. Without it im sorry, its not possible. The religion was built trough it. Take it away destroy the culture. Its true that there is death penalty for cannabis in India right? Im a "CIA stereotype" because I speak this out?
