Several States in the US are legalising posession and public consumption of marijuana. This has led to a burgeoning ‘marijuana’ industry. What can India learnIJ KUSHAN MITRA answers
The Pacific Northwest is possibly one of the nicest parts of America. One of the final parts of this gigantic country to be colonised, it is still dominated by massive forests. Even the largest city in this part of the United States, Seattle famous for its coffee and computer code is an oddly laidback sort of place. It lacks the hurried nature of cities on the east coast, the latent racism of the American South and the glamour (and sunshine) of California.
But drive 15 minutes from the heart of the city, which would be Pike Place market, famous for its stalls selling gigantic King Salmon and where Starbucks originated, you get to the corner of 23rd and Union Street. And there, you really can’t miss the giant neon sign for ‘Uncle Ike’s’, there is quite a crowd too. Which is odd, because 15 minutes from the heart of the Central Business District, you are in suburbia, with low-rise wooden buildings and organic supermarkets.
But Uncle Ike’s is not your regular store, you see. It is a fully legitimate marijuana shop. Because in the State of Washington, where Seattle is the biggest city, buying and consuming marijuana is completely legitimate. And it is not just Washington, Alaska and Colorado have also allowed marijuana consumption for recreational use (with Oregon about to follow suit). A majority of US States now allow marijuana use for medical purposes and as one noticed in California, it is fairly easy to get properly grown, sealed marijuana because getting a medical certificate is really not that difficult. Public opinion towards marijuana, once the key villain on the ‘war on Drugs’ started by Roland Reagan has shifted dramatically and most US states are moving towards legitimising marijuana growing and consumption.
Yet, marijuana consumption and transportation remains a federal crime, so one cannot use Credit Cards to buy weed at Uncle Ike’s as that is under the purview of the US Treasury Department. But cash can buy you everything from marijuana infused mints and chocolates to pre-rolled joints and hundreds of different varieties of what we call ganja. There is a massive amount of research and innovation taking place in this sector, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
However, this is an ‘industry’ now, and much like ‘Big Tobacco’, America is bound to give birth to ‘Big Weed’ and as we find out more about the medical and beneficial impacts of ganja and its active ingredient Tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) one question should arise. What should India doIJ Because, make no mistakes, this is where the plant came from, ganja consumption is intertwined with Hinduism, it is written of in our texts. This past week, millions of Indians must have consumed thandai laced with bhaang, well, same plant, same effects albeit slightly moderated.
It were the indentured labourers that the British snatched from their houses in North India taking them halfway across the world to work in sugar plantations in the Caribbean that took the seeds of the plant with them. It was in the slave labour camps that the Indians shared their plant with their fellow slaves from Africa. And the marijuana plant became subsumed in Caribbean culture, eventually making it into global popular consciousness through Bob Marley and the Rastafarian movement.
In India, the irony is that the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act of 1985 in effect made the possession and consumption of most drugs, including marijuana illegal. The NDPS Act is an incredibly powerful act that gives a lot of suo moto powers to police officials. Yet, it is an open secret that India is not only one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of ganja in various forms (either the leaf or the resin, more popularly called charas). Malana Cream, grown in a village in the Manali-Kasaul valley in Himachal Pradesh is one of the most coveted forms of the drug globally. Given that bhaang thandai and pakodas has immense social acceptability in India as does smoking ganja to a large extent.
Nobody is arguing that the NDPS Act should be scrapped, drugs such as cocaine, heroin and lSD despite their relatively easy availability in India are social ills, yet as the West moves to a progressive and permissive culture with substances like ganja, so should India. If for nothing else, simply because culturally we are a people at ease with it.
And as American cities and States where marijuana has been legalised have discovered, there are immense taxation benefits, better utilisation of police because low-level drug usage is ignored and clear tourism benefits. Most of the people at Uncle Ike’s were from outside Washington. Just like the United States has upended the global beer industry in the past few years by being extremely innovative, seeing the choice of products at Uncle Ike’s, it is quite clear that the US will dominate any future marijuana industry. The details and analysis on every packet of cookie or chocolate one bought was extremely detailed, down to the type of high one would experience.
In india, one of the constant complaints is how the West has appropriated our traditional plants and cure. This country has clearly lost control of this traditional plant. Not only should India have a more progressive attitude towards cannabis/marijuana/ganja whatever one chooses to call it, but we can and should build industry and tourism around it.