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Kullu MLA bats for legalising hemp cultivation in Himachal
Chief parliamentary secretary Sunder Singh Thakur, who is also the legislator from Kullu, said it’s not for the first time that such a request has been made to the government; adds they had even filed a public interest litigation and the court had passed an interim order to legalise it
Chief parliamentary secretary Sunder Singh Thakur has once again batted for legalising hemp cultivation in the state to mobilise its resources, which he said would help the cash-strapped Himachal Pradesh government.
Thakur, who is also the legislator from Kullu, said, “It’s not for the first time that I have made such a request to the government. We had even filed a public interest litigation and the court had passed an interim order to legalise it.”
“We are making it clear that hemp from cannabis will be used for industrial purpose, and not for recreational purpose,” he added.
Hemp, the plant from which charas is extracted as resin, grows in the wild in all districts of the state, barring Lahaul and Spiti.
“The Congress government is serious to draw a policy for legalising hemp cultivation,” Thakur further said. “The government has inherited a debt of ₹69,700 crore, which has now increased to ₹73,000 crore,” he added.
“Previous chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had also worked on a plan to legalise cannabis cultivation in the state. The BJP government had hoped to earn ₹18,000 crore annually apart from generating job opportunities,” the MLA said.
“The cannabis produced in the state is of high quality and there is a potential to do its controlled cultivation. Under the NDPS Act, 1985, there are provisions for the cultivation, production, maintenance and transportation of cannabis,” said Thakur.
Himachal Pradesh is not the first state to legalise cannabis cultivation for medicinal purposes and industrial use to boost its economy. Neighbouring Uttarakhand did so in 2017 followed by Madhya Pradesh, another BJP-ruled state.
The successive Himachal Pradesh governments had been deliberating on legalising the hemp trade in the state for the past two decades. As per anti-narcotics agencies, about 2,400 acres in Himachal are under organised illicit cultivation of cannabis. Charas worth ₹960 crore is smuggled out of the state each year and finds its way to western European and Scandinavian countries, while in Israel there is demand for ‘Malana cream’.
In the remote regions of Kullu district, hybrid hemp is sown clandestinely to extract high-quality charas, which is sold at exorbitant prices abroad and at key destinations in India.
Traditionally, hemp was grown in parts comprising Shimla, Mandi, Kullu, Chamba and Sirmaur. Its fibre was used to make baskets, ropes and slippers and its seeds were used in traditional cooking.
In the 1980s, foreign visitors or hippies taught villagers in the Kullu district to extract the intoxicant resin or charas from the hemp plant. Foreign drug mafia operated behind them and soon, scores of villages in Kullu started making a livelihood from charas extracted from the hemp or cannabis sativa plant.
