On the Legalization of Marijuana, Cannabis

Cannabis is an ILLEGAL substance in India. However it was not so very long ago.

From time to time humans have indulged in behavior and beliefs that defy all logic and commonsense. While in the past it was on insisting that the earth is flat, in modern times it is on insisting that Marijuana be illegal and it be classified as a substance that is more dangerous than not just alcohol but also opium and its derivatives. Needless to say besides the crime that this has created it has led to denying its possible medical benefits to many including war veterans suffering form PTSD and children suffering from epilepsy. The classification is so severe that it even hampers modern research into cannabis. Needless to say this goes against a vast body of modern scientific studies and literature on the subject. For example see:

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/its-official-marijuana-is-medicine/Content?oid=4381482


However recently the move to change has begun to quote from a report at,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-marijuana-ban_563a3e21e4b0b24aee4858ae?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016&section=india&adsSiteOverride=in

Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill that would end federal prohibition of marijuana, marking the latest move the Democratic presidential candidate has made toward ending the war on drugs  ---- The Senate bill would remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of the "most dangerous" drugs and strike marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, allowing states to decide whether they want to legalize pot for recreational or medical use without federal intervention.

“Just as alcohol prohibition failed in the 1920s, it’s clear marijuana prohibition is failing today,” Polis said in a statement. “For decades, the federal ban on marijuana has wasted tax dollars, impeded our criminal justice system, lined the pockets of drug cartels, and trampled on states’ ability to set their own public health laws. ... Today’s introduction of the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act in the Senate is a huge step forward in the movement to enact the commonsense drug laws needed to grow our economy and restore fairness to our justice system."  -- "In the United States we have 2.2 million people in jail today, more than any other country. And we’re spending about $80 billion a year to lock people up. We need major changes in our criminal justice system – including changes in drug laws,” Sanders said at George Mason University on Oct. 28. “Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong. That has got to change."

The prohibition has made the US as country with the highest prisoner density in the world. As president Obama has pointed out on twitter, the US has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of its prisoners. Needless to say, despite being the richest country in the world, this has made the US a less than a happy country. Further afar in Latin America the US pressure to include Marijuana in a war on drugs has created havoc in Latin American Countries. It has led to a huge number of deaths in places like Mexico and a huge number of refugees including unaccompanied minors escaping as refugees to the US. In other parts of the world, such as India the banning of previously commonly used cannabis in provinces like Punjab has promoted as substitute the use of more dangerous drugs and increased consumption of alcohol that is ruining families, causing increased road deaths and gruesome crimes like gang rapes.

Legalizing cannabis reduces the need of other dangerous and addictive drugs for some in seeking psychological relief from the stress of life that affects all at various times. The result of the addiction of opium and other drugs is that a person becomes a prisoner of the habit of these harmful alternative drugs in a way that there is often no escape except through death, but not before it has caused ruin and disaster in the family. Cannabis has not been known to cause such an addiction. It also brings in medical benefits, it removes the associated crime, enforcement expenses and it brings in possible financial gain through taxation for public good, a benefit that presently goes to crime syndicates.

A large cross section of public in many countries is gullible and falls prey to the propaganda that is dished out in big media often motivated by vested interests. Many believe the foolish lie that cannabis is more dangerous than alcohol or that it kills more, when in fact the truth is quite contrary to this. When the existing laws on Marijuana have been challenged in Courts of Law they have passed orders against them in Canada and more recently Mexico, much against the wishes of law makers some of whom, those with influence on others and most reluctant to give up their source of easy profits even on the corpses of their innocent citizens, may be hand in gloves with the drug mafias now. According to an earlier UN report it seems that more than half of the illegal drug trade arises from Marijuana. for example see the following ruling of the Mexico Supreme Court,

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/05/world/americas/mexico-supreme-court-marijuana-ruling.html?_r=0

India too made this drug illegal under US pressue in 1985 clubbing it with dangerous substances. However, because of its strong religious tradition its use seems to continue in parts by the tons as it has for hundreds of years without causing any problem or difficulty. When some people in Himalayan villages are told that in some countries it is illegal to grow more than three or six plants at home, they express surprise or just laugh heartily. Hundreds of thousands of cannabis plants grow in the wild in the Himalayas along with other wild growth and anyone hardly ever bothers about them  For example see this report,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Ghota-distributed-in-Kullu-temples/articleshow/7616506.cms

The fact is that if all controls and regulations around this herb are dropped and it be treated the same as lettuce or spinach, all problems associated with it would vanish and the world would be a happier and more peaceful place. The fact that some still debate some sort of controls on it seems aside from ignorance because of  reluctance to give up illicit profits and also in an attempt to hide the shame of earlier falsie propaganda on it. It was free to grow in the wild and fields for thousands of years of human history and created no difficulty for mankind before it was made illegal, and that is how it still in the Himalayas where it grows free from evil and greedy eyes of humanity. This herb is an example of how mankind creates its own misery out of thin air where none existed before.

It is true that if it grew as freely as dandelions, on an odd occasion someone would grab a whole lot and get very high on it even as some do now with a bottle of whiskey with the difference that in the former case they would not die, commit a road accident or get uninhibited enough to commit a foolish crime, and perchance if someone did it too often as some do with alcohol now, they would not ruin their liver, develop psychosis or become die hard addicts. There is a chance though then that they may become saintly. The Himalayas have had many such saints since ancient times, avid consumers of this herb as an aid to meditation,  since the time of the first, known as Bhole Nath or Shiv Shankar, lord of all hermits and saints and destroyer of all evil when he chooses to do so as per Himalayan mythology.  According to some more mythology he developed the plant by cross breeding genes of the wild hemp plant with those of human genes so that a plant now known as marijuana may carry some of the same compounds found in mother's milk, that keep babies healthy, happy and secure, so that adults too may derive similar benefits when in need. Scientifically, this author views spiritual mythology as attempts to explain deeper truths of a powerful and mysterious universe through symbolism that may appeal even to children and the simplest of minds.

The origin of this plant appears to be the Himalayas where it was highly respected herb and a part of its ancient religious, spiritual and herbal medicinal tradition. India too must now again legalize this herb and share its ancient knowledge as well as quality exports of this herb from its geographical origin, with the world, especially when the country that compelled it to make it illegal, the US has begun to correct its mistake on this matter.