Illegal, yet expanding: Massive Cannabis Cultivation in Himachal Pradesh

India is a country where some laws still bite the dust. India's draconic Narcotics Drugs and Psychotorpic Substances Act (1985), influenced by the UN Conventions and drummed by USA jailed thousands- mostly users. Cultivators of illicit crops had some of their fields eradicated occasionally, but they were usually not arrested.  

Now, in many parts of India a few small cultivators have become rich cultivators by energetically pushing end products. Malana Cream was popular abroad (since the late 1970s) first and now it has captured the domestic imagination and taste buds. 

One such place is Malana in Parvati Valley of Himachal Pradesh (via Bhuntar). Another place is Tosh in the same valley. Yet another is Jasol also in Parvati. 

And so on till you wonder what Authority is doing to earn their salaries.

 The extent of cannabis cultivation is wide spread in much of India ( at least 400 of its 640 districts have cannabis growth), but the defiance by which it is cultivated in Himachal Pradesh is unbelievable. Here it grows in all but one of its twelve districts. I shall write of only one small village in HP- Malana.

   The heart of Malana village famous for its hashish.... A foreign guest is sleeping off his hashish high! 

Malana (3023 mtrs) is a village in a side valley of the Parvati River in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh.

         Map of Himachal Pradesh (HP) showing a few                 Cannabis growing spots. Opium is also grown here            but that is an another story. 

         Parvati Valley & Malana: every year Cannabis                fields increase.

 Since the ‘70s this village is notorious all over the world for its hashish- called Malana Cream. Cannabis fields are inside the village, outside, above and below it. 

    A cannabis field- one of many. 

It is supposed to be the best in the world, and available in Israel, Europe and parts of USA. Foreigners, especially Israelis, Dutch, Germans and Americans have been visiting Malana village and Parvati Valley for about three decades to get Malana Cream. Helpful Americans have believed to have introduced cannabis seeds from the US in the upper reaches of Parvati Valley.

Cannabis cultivation and processing of hashish is also common in Rasol, Kasol, Tosh, Pulga, Khirganga and the higher reaches of Parvati Valley. Buyers and suppliers contact each other over the excellent mobile network here.

There is so much international demand, and now domestic too, that the village cannot supply enough. Malana Cream is now reportedly adulterated with hashish from Nepal (many Nepalese are working in Parvati valley and Malana) and from Rohru and other parts of Himachal Pradesh. The rate for the adulterated hashish is Rs. 2000/- per tola and Rs. 4000/- per tola for genuine Malana Cream.

I have been visiting Parvati Valley for the past fifty years. There was not even a whiff of cannabis on my first visit. On my last two visits to Malana in 2008 and 2009, I was involved in a futile attempt to convince them to give up cannabis cultivation. We had some hope in Alternative Development then. There were many rare and expensive herbs like Cinchona and Artemisia growing around Malana and in other parts of Parbati Valley. Several scientists from the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur attended these meeting after surveying the herbs found there. They advised that these herbs could be propagated and packaged inexpensively and could get all in the village an income almost equal to that from cannabis. 

Five years later there are no herbs at all. Expanding cannabis cultivation has smothered them all! And I am firmly of the opinion that Alternative Development, much loved by the west, is a waste of time. If the people are making lakhs from cannabis, why should they go for a handful of Rupees, especially when the law is so tolerant. 

I was in Malana yet again on the 2^nd of October, 2015. There were foreigners going up in the same numbers as earlier. The new development was the astonishing sight of an endless stream of Indian boys and girls from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and even as far as Mumbai, Hyderabad etc. They were all going for a party that was to last for two nights in Malana and then carry on in Kasol for another night.

On the steep two hour climb up I got talking to two young undergrads from Hyderabad, who told me that they had come to buy hashish for themselves and to sell too.

 Thus, the circle of addicts grows wider.

On reaching the village I was not surprised to see cannabis cultivation inside, outside and above (on the way to Chanderkhani Pass), as it has always been there. What astonished me was that many more houses than in the past had high mounds of cut cannabis plants stacked on balconies and roof tops. Children, women and some men were openly busy making hashish by rubbing the buds between their palms. 

  I even saw some foreigners making it....

Hashish pellets, two each in cellophane, were being given away as samples by males, who had only two things to say: “Don’t step inside any house”, and “Do you want hashish?” 

This procession of clients of hashish starts from early September. 

  A sign in Hebrew in Kasol village. Similarly there are villages under American, Dutch and German influence, but Israelis predominate. 

   

 If one googles Malana , or searches youtube for it, there is abundant photographic proof and textual experiences available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFiucWKo-8

 A small portion of the lined up taxis that were bringing young Indians to Malana on the 2^nd of October, 2014. 

 Why are so many Indian youth heading to Malana like moths to a flame? This question can be answered only after investigation. My guess is that these bright young folk (would be engineers, doctors, lawyers etc et al) are wilting under pressures of ambition and work to smoke hashish for non medical purposes only, and then to pay for their use, traffic a little amount.  A corollary of all this neglect is that addiction in Kullu to ganja, hashish and opium has increased, but everyone denies it. 

    Indian youth off to Malana to buy Malana Cream (cannabis resin)

Now that cannabis cultivation and hashish production has become big business, law has to step in. For, gangs and violence are creeping in, which was inevitable.

The Parbati, Malana and Nagar Valleys are idyllic beautiful haunts for tourists' and trekkers'too. So far cannabis and hashish have been attracting more adherents. And tourists who want to only see cannabis growing in such joyful abundance.

And then there is illegal opium cultivation in Himachal too. About that there will be an another blog! 

But there is some hope from HP's neighbour's experience. Uttarakhand. Here they have asked The Bombay Hemp Company (http://hempfoodsindia.com/) to use its cannabis crop and turn it into textile yarn, T shirts, medicinal oil and even hempcrete- a cheap building material. Cannabis has been used in many of ancient India's forts, temples, mosques and monuments. 

Cannabis- an Indian view

(Malana- in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, North India: Home of Malana Cream the world renowned hashish. A disuassion meeting in progress in Sept 2008. No success.

Top: Another attempt at preaching in November, 2009. No luck. Cannabis is still King.)

This was how I started my end of the discussion on Cannabis in a mmeting held in Lisbon shortly. The views here are entirely mine and no one in India could have influenced me.


1- Some years ago when I was posted in Calcutta in the eastern part of India I used to see workers in an adjacent plot constructing a huge building. They would cook only one meal a day. Intrigued, I investigated. They smoked 5 gms of cannabis a day and that gave them energy to do strenuous work. - - There are at least 10 million regular cannabis users in India. Almost equal to the population of Portugal. Most of them take it because of necessity. They belong to the uprooted rural poor. Cannabis maintains the illusion of a full stomach. This enables them to labour hard and long. They send most of their earnings home to support their families in the villages and pay off the vultures who lend them money at exorbitant interest. They age at 50. Don’t blame cannabis for premature ageing as some do all too eagerly in India. Its excessive exertion with little nutrition.

In some states of Northern India and Eastern India there are many bhang shops. Bhang is an extract from hemp or from the male cannabis plant. It is commonly drunk with crushed rose petals, melon seeds, almonds mixed with curd and milk. It is not covered by the NDPS Act, but is a State subject. The state licences some shops to sell bhang. There are about 800 shops in Rajasthan alone. It is supposed to be a harmless drink but too many glasses can knock out a first timer. India had specifically asked for bhang to be excluded from the Convention as it is part of a 2000 year old tradition and has also a religious function.

In addition there are many cannabis users who consume it for relaxation or for rituals and these can not be even counted.

Whenever there is large scale destruction of cannabis, the poorest get kicked in the stomach. There is always a price increase. Mercifully, such destructions are now rare, as enforcement has realized that cosmetic destruction has no purpose and complete extermination of cannabis is downright impossible.

India has had a long experience with cannabis. In 1895 there was the Royal Hemp Commission which concluded that “its effects were benign ….. & that no irreversible health or social damage occurred because of its short or long term use….” 102 years and several Commissions later there was still no proof that cannabis was harmful. In 1997 All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi the leading research hospital in India had held a workshop with the Ministry of Health after researching effects of cannabis on health for many years. They could not add much to what the Royal Hemp commission had said. As this was a Government sponsored seminar they could not go against existing policy and couched conclusions with lots of maybes, ifs and buts. However, their findings eventually influenced the Government to reduce the penalties on drug users especially those who took cannabis. From 2001 ‘small quantity‘ of cannabis meant 1 kg instead of 500 gms.

India had from 1955 to 1959 even allowed licensed cannabis cultivation.

Then came the horrendous 1961 Convention. And, after Article 49s meaningless grace period of 25 years ended, India had enacted its Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act of 1985. Today not only is cannabis cultivation and use still common all over India, it has increased immensely. The NDPS Act influenced by the First Convention could not limit cannabis cultivation and usage at all. Post 1985 people were jailed for what they had been doing openly for hundreds of years earlier.

The problem not only remains but has hit the fan and despite hopes expressed down the decades by friends of the Convention and UNGASS I & II all efforts to suppress cannabis use have decisively failed. The First Convention was made mainly by lawmakers and pharmacologists and bureaucrats far removed from actual knowledge of narcotics. Today, even though, abetted by the UN, ignorance or indifference still rules in many countries, there are many organizations that have researched this subject well and are thus against these restrictions. They ought to be heard rather than stubbornly dittoing past mistakes.

2- India is absent from most international debates because they are embarrassed by the uncontrollable cannabis production and use in India, and by the condition of the people who abuse it. In some international discussion in the 90s India had opposed any concessions. Internationally though India would agree with the US in not diluting the severity of its laws.

3- India had a relaxed attitude towards all kinds of addiction till the First Convention. In 1985 a tough law was introduced hoping the problem would go. Well, the problem of cannabis is still there and much more than any policy maker or law enforcer could have ever dared imagine. Now hashish is being produced in large quantities too.

Limited enforcement resources are the only reason that India has been soft on cannabis. Had there been more officers, the jails would have been filled with mainly cannabis users as they are the easiest to get at.


4- India has for the past 50 years been researching medical uses of cannabis as well its harmful effects. Recently Indian laboratories have found (as have many others round the world) that cannabis is good preventive for vomiting, pain and glaucoma. The only other lesson that can be learnt from India’s experience is to have a population as large as India’s and then such problems will be ignored!