Be it the consequence of the waning influence of America over
the Latin American countries or their desperate bid to break the serious nexus
between the lucrative marijuana trade and organised crime, Uruguay became the
first country to legalise marijuana trade. With the result it has parked across
many countries to reform their existing laws. Even Other Latin American
countries are seriously contemplating on the process of legalisation of
marijuana. More than 20 states in US have already legalised the medical use of
the substance while Colorado and Washington have legalised Cannabis for both
medical and recreational use through ballot legislation on January 1st. Alaska
is going to join the band wagon having collecting more than requisite number of
signatures of people for the legislation in August 2014. While three states Arizona,
Oregon and California have kick started
all the moves for legislation.
As per the new law in Uruguay the production, sale and
possession of cannabis is legal. It will allow registered users over 18 years
of age to buy 40gm of cannabis for a month and permits them to grow eight
marijuana plants for personal use. This legislation will come into force from
April this year. President Mujica admitted that the promulgation of the law is
an act of desperation as their 50 year long battle against drugs has failed.
They believed that this law would expose more drug cartels but critics were
worried as more people would get exposed to the drugs. Opposition blamed the
President for making the country guinea pigs for his wild experiment. This
decision drew much international flak especially from the International
Narcotics Control Board (INCB) as the law is in complete contravention to the
international drug treaty to which Uruguay is a party. Further there is a
fractured opinion about the law with former Presidents of several Latin
American countries welcoming the law and Pope Francis indirectly criticised it
on his trip to Brazil.
Even countries are rife with serious debates, it is clear
that several years of prohibitionist stance failed to yield fruitful results
against drugs which are considered as this evil. Due to which their non-medical has been
completely curtailed. People are now not really interested in discussing the
harmful effects of the substance but maintain that negative effects can be
reduced by effectively regulating the drug. It is largely viewed that
legalisation would eradicate an underclass of people burdened with crippling
criminal records and gives police more time to pursue real crime. As a British
legislator confessed that pressure from old college of people who call for
tough action on drugs prevents them from passing laws for legalisation. But
statistics indicate that regardless of the prohibition people would still have
drugs. Thus, it would be wise to choose the policy approach that delivers the
best outcomes and minimises the harms.
Many Latin American countries already don’t punish for
possession of small amounts of the substance for personal use. By extending the
prohibitionist regime, states have realised that they have gifted the criminals
huge profits, lost influence over the key users in the medical sector and lost
significant amounts in lieu of taxes. On the other hand, they spent several
billions of dollars to nab the drug traffickers and thousands were locked up
for possession of drugs and for petty narcotic crimes.
International Drug Policy Consortium has reported that nearly
70% of Latin American women were used as mules to clandestinely transport the
illicit cargo within their bodies making them severe drug offenders. Hence many
governments in this region are in favour of dropping or relaxing the hard-line
prohibitionist approach which was launched during Nixon’s regime which has
failed to stem the increased consumption of Cannabis and other hard drugs like
cocaine over the last 40 years. It sounds surreal but South American countries
have extended complete ban over the usage of marijuana for medical use even.
Now these countries like Chile would first permit the usage of marijuana for
medical use which will pave way for its recreational use. There are five
countries in world- Argentina, Australia (where possession of large amounts is
subjected to ticketing but not punishment), Belgium, Columbia, Nepal where
possession of small quantities for personal use is permitted and not meted out
with serious punishment.
Legalised use of cannabis in all the three forms marijuana
(grass or ganja), hashish (charas) and bhang was a norm in India till 1985
where state owned retail units used to sell these drugs. Traditionally these
have been considered as poor man’s intoxicants in India and their consumption
was never considered as deviant behaviour. Come Holi and marijuana is savoured in
all forms without any restraint. Actually legalisation of Cannabis is
considered to be an elitist view as it is considered to be medically less
harmful than alcohol. Ancient Indian medical treatises are replete with several
medications for diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting etc where cannabis constituted an
essential ingredient. Since 1961 US has started a serious campaigning for
global law against all drugs and during this stint soft drugs like marijuana
which were way of life in India were included with hard drugs like heroin.
Though, India withstood the pressure for 25 years, it has buckled down when
Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 enacted Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS)
Act. Under this the minimum punishment
was violation of NDPS act was 10 years. With the result drug peddling has
become a serious scourge with criminals shifting their focus from marijuana to
hard drugs which fetched them 10 times more profit with the same amount of
risk. Subsequently, addiction to hard drugs began to hit the Indian society.
Twenty nine years later with several countries paving way for legalisation of
Cannabis, India might think of amending the NDPS Act.
Amidst of the changing perception about legalisation, China
is making unprecedented plans for cashing on this boom. It had set the stage to
exploit the burgeoning marijuana market with more than half of the patents
relating to or involving cannabis originating in China. It has filed 309 of the
606 patents related to the drug. According to World Health Organisation (WHO)
report more than 2.5% of World’s population or around 147 million people use
Cannabis. The medicinal properties of cannabis have been increasingly explored.
Research has established that it can be used for nausea caused by chemotherapy
of cancer and chronic pain to cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy.
Following the acceptance of cannabis in medicinal drugs by the west, the
pharmaceutical sciences of China have outpaced the western world in quickly
evolving new medical applications with this substance. Westernised Chinese
medicine is becoming increasing popular and available in dispensaries.
Several Chinese patents for herbal treatment are filed using
cannabis. They are used in medications for constipation, peptic ulcers,
multiple sclerosis and cancer. All these are shown to have curative effects
with little or no side effects. Following their foot-steps Jamaica, announced forming
its first medical company based on marijuana. Owing to its traditional
knowledge on marijuana, Jamaica aims to transform its fledging economy through
medicinal cannabis. But International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has been
very critical about Cannabis and lashed out- “Cannabis is not only addictive
but affects the fundamental brain functions, IQ potential, academic and job
performance and impair driving skills. Smoking of cannabis is more carcinogenic
than smoking tobacco”. Irrespective of directives of the International body,
Younger generation comprehends that alcohol in spite of being more harmful is
not regulated, so it hardly makes sense why marijuana be driven by the underground
market. Countries are in the process of bracing up for a psychoengineering
experiment the results of which are much awaited.
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