The Reality Behind the 'Ganja Markets' of India

In late September, news broke out of two police officers confiscating 160kgs of Marijuana or Ganja but only reporting 1kg while selling off 159kgs. This news coincidentally coincided with the recent "crackdown" on the "Bollywood drugs mafia". In reality, consumption of marijuana is actually incredibly widespread among the youth and this is even more true for the youths in Mumbai and Delhi. A Research in 2018 revealed that the cities of Delhi and Mumbai respectively smoke 38.2 tones and 32.4 tones of weed every year and this is most likely much less than the actual consumption.

In a country like India, where the consumption of cannabis and the consumption of crack cocaine could potentially lead to the same level of punishment, the youth just can't seem to stop themselves from consuming marijuana. So we naturally ask ourselves "why?"; and that leads us to the historical background of the country where marijuana has been a traditional go-to intoxicant for the common people and certain mythological characters as well as Hindu gods. We've always had a culture of consuming "bhaang" during Holi and the sadhus smoking weed in the hills and it was all acceptable and ordinary until the Rajeev Gandhi government passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 1985, which essentially made the cannabis plant inaccessible and classified it under the same category as cocaine, heroin, meth, etc but this was mostly in theory. In fact, in reality, India is still smoking marijuana like there's no tomorrow and obviously, no large "industry" can run without the help and consent of the administration. I recently got in touch with a dealer and cultivator of cannabis, let's call him "Gopi". Gopi told me, not very deep into our conversation, that the police in fact support and enable the selling and buying of weed while making a few meaningless arrests here and there to make sure everyone is aware that they are doing their job. He told me, like every ordinary shopkeeper, he has to pay the concerned police officer of his area a cut from his weekly income from selling cannabis. In a country like India where marijuana use is normal and obvious, should the plant actually be banned? Nearly all studies to this date have found multiple therapeutical and medicinal values of marijuana use. Alcohol and cigarettes are in fact much more lethal when compared to marijuana. One could also argue that legalising marijuana would enable the state to control quality and price and generate large revenues while also ending illegal trading and gang violence. This regulated selling and buying would also, to an extent, end the scope of corruption for the police and the administration. It was because of pressure from the American government that the Rajeev Gandhi led government had to ban cannabis in 1985 and now that America has started to rapidly legalising the use of the plant for recreational purposes, what stops India from doing the same? Well, the problem is that after decades of conditioning it's difficult for the Indian people to suddenly accept a drug declared to be as dangerous as cocaine or heroin as an ordinary intoxicant. One could argue that there is no need to legalise more intoxicants anyway and legalising and appropriation of these "drugs" will only sway the youth from a productive path.

India being in an economical crisis desperately needs any sources of revenue and considering the amount of cannabis Indians consume, this could well be the perfect source of unending financial resources. The history of cannabis, its use, and its position in Indian society gives rise to multiple questions. Will India legalise cannabis? Will it remain banned? Is it the right time to legalise cannabis? Only time will tell us, but what we do know now is that the banning of cannabis has made the administration corrupt and allowed certain individuals to earn large sums of unaccounted wealth, without the knowledge or permission of the government.