Times of India: Should We Not Legalize Cannabis?

[RainDog]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/the-joint-campaign-should-we-not-legalize-recreational-use-of-cannabis/eventcoverage/17167279.cms

NEW DELHI: What two American states, Washington and Colorado, have decided to do - legalize recreational use of marijuana - was the norm in India until 1985. All cannabis derivatives - marijuana (grass or ganja), hashish (charas) and bhang - were legally sold in this country. As a matter of fact, most state governments had their own retail shops to sell these drugs. India has known, consumed and celebrated ganja, charas and bhang for millennia.

Their consumption was never regarded as socially deviant behaviour any more than drinking alcohol was. If there was any bias against ganja or charas, it was that these were often viewed as the poor man's intoxicant by the upper classes. But come Holi, these prejudices would melt away as rich and poor savoured the joyous high of bhang. Even now, despite a legal ban, recreational use of these drugs is widespread in India.

...Since 1961, the US has been campaigning for a global law against all drugs, both hard and soft. Given that ganja, charas and bhang were a way of life in India, we opposed the drastic measure. But by the early '80s, American society was grappling with some drug problems and opinion had grown against the "excesses" of the hippie generation. In 1985, the Rajiv Gandhi government buckled under the pressure and enacted a law called the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

It was a poor law that clubbed marijuana, hashish and bhang with hard drugs like smack, heroin, cocaine and crack, and banned them all. The minimum punishment for violation of the NDPS Act was 10 years of jail (it has since been relaxed and the crackdown on marijuana has eased somewhat). What happened as a result of this law was that almost overnight the entire trade shifted from peddling grass or charas to smack or worse. This was because while the risk was the same, profits from the hard-killer drugs were ten times higher.

And suddenly, there was a drugs problem in India...

This is also why the Colorado and Washington State votes were big deals - the rest of the world has been held hostage by our drug warriors, too.

[PoliticAverse]

1. "the rest of the world has been held hostage by our drug warriors, too" - Indeed. n/t

[hollysmom]

2. Whew - when I read the headline - I thought it said legalize Cannibals - much better to be cannabis.

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 01:57 AM - Edit history (1)

I was just curious why they wanted to legalize cannibals considering many Indians don't eat beef. Brain fart, never mind

[RainDog]

8. and even better - cannabis

"Marijuana" is a slang word that was adopted by Harry Anslinger, when he began his campaign for cannabis prohibition. He spelled it "Marihuana" to make it look "foreign," since the campaign was aimed at Latinos and African-Americans. Anslinger claimed it made black men think they were equal to white women... as one of the reason it should be made illegal.

Cannabis is the actual name and includes what's commonly called "hemp," or cannabis that is so low in THC that it has no psychotropic qualities - and that, too is illegal under U.S. law, even tho farmers in North Dakota and KY and elsewhere want to start growing hemp again as an industrial crop.

[hollysmom]

11. Thank you, corrected. I can't read, and I can't write, a double threat!

didn't the US government start people planting this during some war for the hemp?

[RainDog]

13. yes. hemp was encouraged during WWII

it was used for rope, etc.

since then, a lot of progress has been made on improving ways to harvest and prep it, too.

[AlGoreRhythms]

3. Wow

I didn't realize our bullshit war on drugs had such wide reaching effects.

[RainDog]

6. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is U.S. law made international

...which is why places like The Netherlands didn't go for full legalization - because it violated the Single Convention, not just their national laws.

wiki has info on various stages of this agreement -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Convention_on_Narcotic_Drugs

[BlueMan Votes]

4. isn't it already not legalized...?

[RainDog]

7. yeah, I just copied their headline, which is a bit rhetorical n/t

[BlueMan Votes]

9. actually, if you say it with an Indian accent- it sounds perfectly right.

a lot of Indians speak English better than a lot of the English.

[RainDog]

10. oh, I know that

my ex had tons of graduate students from India. They were excellent students with better prep in all areas of education and, best of all for me, taught me to make curried cauliflower.

[JI7]

5. the Gandhi Sons (not related to Mahatma Gandhi) were kind of like Bush sons weren't they

idiots who are only considered as serious leaders because of who they were born to ? one ended up killing himself when he crashed his plane.

[Lucinda]

12. KNR

[tridim]

14. It be wonderful to be able to legally trade cannabis products all over the world.

Cannabis prohibition is one of the the most obvious mistakes human culture has made. It nice to see a majority of the people finally starting to understand that.

[RainDog]

15. Agreed that it was a stupid mistake

...and I hope I'm living in the time when this will be corrected.

[Romulox]

16. I'm against it.

I think Indians should get their LEGAL kicks just we do: snorting bath salts purchased at a gas station.

[RainDog]

17. yeah. a thousand years of experience with cannabis in India

certainly demonstrated they can't handle it.

[marijuanaindia]

18. Marijuana india

its only illegal because of its connection to United Nations. Even the government knows that its should be legal thats why they are not much implementing the law. They even have their own Indian Marijuana Community Forum ( www.HIGHisCOOL.in )

[RainDog]

19. It would be great if you could contribute information on this subject here

Because, yes, America's war on (mostly cannabis) drugs has a worldwide reach.