By Kanchan Basu
Up in the mountains of Kullu, on trails so treacherous you wouldn’t venture on them, a crop is ready to harvest. But it’s no ordinary crop. Far from the police’s eyes, hired hands are busy extracting ‘Charas’ from cannabis plants. By the time the ‘Bhong Season’ gets over in October, they would have produced thousands of kilogrammes of the priciest ‘Charas’.
For almost 40 years now, cannabis cultivation has been a crime in India. But that has never stopped farmers in parts of Himachal’s Kullu, Chamba, Sirmaur, Shimla, Mandi and Kangra districts. In fact, the premium on quality ‘Charas’ only serves as an incentive for them.
But the hush-hush nature of cannabis farming could end if the Himachal government goes through with its plan to legalise the plant for medical and industrial use.
Will Boost Village Economy:
The idea isn’t new. In 2018, former Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had made a similar announcement. A year earlier, Shimla-based advocate Deven Khanna had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Himachal High Court seeking directions to the state government for making the cultivation of industrial and medical cannabis legal.
But it was only in April 2023 that the government brought a resolution to the state assembly to legalise cannabis. Then, a five-member panel was formed to explore the possibility. The panel headed by Himachal revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi tabled its report in the assembly on September 22, 2023, and described legalisation as a ‘game-changer’ for the state.
“The idea behind allowing cannabis cultivation is to generate revenue for the state and create a source of employment,” says Puran Chand Thakur, BJP MLA from Mandi district who had introduced the resolution to legalise cannabis. “If legalised, cannabis will turn out to be a boon for the state’s rural economy”.
Thakur, who is also a member of the committee on cannabis legalisation, says legal cannabis will eradicate the drug mafia. “It will be like any other crop, say maize or wheat. The government will provide seeds to the farmers and ensure the crop is bought back at good rates. It will provide income to thousands of unemployed youths. This will also be the beginning of the end of the drug mafia in the state.”
He expects cannabis cultivation will be legal in Himachal by March, 2024.
Can Earn More Than Apples:
Legal cannabis will increase the Himachal Government’s annual revenue by Rs 400-500 crore in the initial years, says the report. Though the state is desperate for new revenue streams, successive governments have been wary of making cannabis legal. Their biggest fear is that the drug mafia could misuse the new law.
But Maheshwar Singh Thakur, ‘Raja’ of Kullu and a former BJP MP, says the fear of misuse can’t be an excuse to avoid a step which is in public interest. “Even shoe polish gives some people a high. So, will you ban that too?”
Khanna, who is a member of the government’s hemp committee, says the fear of medical cannabis being misused is unfounded. “The licence for medical cannabis won’t be easy to get and no businessman would like to jeopardise their business by selling cannabis illegally. Medical cannabis will be allowed for established pharma units only.”
Maheshwar Thakur, an ardent supporter of legal cannabis, says, “Himachal should have legalised cannabis a long time ago. The cannabis plant has been a part of life for the locals. They used to make ropes, footwear and even clothes out of the plant’s fibre. The state government should at least make it legal for extracting fibre.”
So, why hasn’t cannabis cultivation been legalised?
Khanna, who has drafted Himachal’s proposed policy blames red tape. “Legalisation has been delayed because politicians spoke about it but never made a policy and bureaucrats created hurdles instead of clearing the way as they failed to realise the benefits of legal cannabis.”
There’s a multi-million dollar market for hemp fibre, Khanna adds. “If legalised, cannabis will overtake the state’s apple industry in terms of revenue.”
Illegal Trade Will Be Hit:
Over the years, Malana village in Kullu district has become synonymous with quality ‘Charas’ sold as ‘Malana cream’ – illegally, of course. Prices will fall if cannabis cultivation is legalised, but village pradhan Raju Ram is all for it. “Even if the money is less, the people of Malana will shift to legal cannabis farming. Nobody wants to live in constant fear of the law. And if the government buys the crop, most of the people here would opt for it.”
Maheshwar Thakur also says legal cannabis will hurt the illicit ‘Charas’ trade. “A poor man is forced to grow cannabis or sell charas. Given an option, he will grow legal hemp. Although legal cannabis won’t be that lucrative, it will impact the illegal trade as fear of the law will divert people towards legal cultivation.”
Mafia Will Exploit Loopholes:
Others, like former Director General of Police (DGP) ID Bhandari, are less sanguine about legalising cannabis cultivation in the state. “Cannabis should be legalised but we as a society are not ready for such a move,” he says, adding that it will only help the ‘Charas’ Mafia which will the loopholes in the new rules.
“Charas smuggling is such a lucrative trade that legalisation would never be able to make a dent in it,” Bhandari says, adding that monitoring and regulating legalised cannabis will be a law enforcement nightmare.
Around 4,000 kg of ‘Charas’ has been seized in the state in the past decade, but former Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officer OP Sharma says, “Hundreds of tonnes of ‘Charas’ is smuggled out annually from six Himachal districts. How much do the police seize? Three hundred kilos in a year! The police have utterly failed to curb smuggling and turned Himachal into a mini-Afghanistan.”
Sharma says lifting the ban on cannabis cultivation will increase police’s manpower requirement for monitoring, so it would be best to start with a pilot project in a place like Malana. “If the villagers switch over to legal cannabis, then maybe you can replicate it elsewhere.”
(Kanchan Basu is a Columnist and Member of Indian Journalists’ Association).
