India

Written by Khagesh Gautam | Updated: November 3, 2020 8:29:06 pm Cannabis samples inside a laboratory facility in Lesotho. (Bloomberg Photo: Waldo Swiegers) Written by Khagesh Gautam and Yashowardhan Tiwari Cannabis use for religious-spiritual, medicinal, and personal purposes has been an important part of Hindu culture and society. The weight of scholarly opinion seeking the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal, and recreational/personal use has seen an upward trend. This trend may fairly be seen as the culmination of more than a half-century-long debate around its criminalisation. One of the key arguments favouring legalisation has been the economic argument — allowing […]

By: Express News Service | Mumbai | Updated: October 27, 2020 8:38:31 pm Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone outside NCB office in Mumbai last month (File) The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) Tuesday raided the Versova residence of actor Deepika Padukone’s manager Karishma Prakash, where it claimed to have found 1.7 grams of charas and at least two bottles of cannabis (CBD) oil . Prakash had earlier been questioned by NCB in connection with the FIR that had been registered in connection with the Sushant Singh Rajput case. “Prakash’s name cropped up during the questioning of one of the paddlers arrested by […]

The Indian seed industry estimates that India has a $25-billion cannabis (marijuana) business in the next five years and the government must allow research and development and export of cannabis seeds to countries where it is being used for making biofuels, bio-plastic and in the pharma industry. If not cultivation, the government must permit the seed industry to carry out cannabis research and development that will help to curb bio-piracy and genetic contamination said Indra Shekhar Singh, Director – Policy and Outreach, National Seed Association of India (NSAI) speaking to BusinessLine. Medicinal value “Cannabis is in huge demand in the […]

 A recent study examined the direction and strength of the association between cannabis and opioids among adults who used non-medical opioids in the United States. The study was conducted for over 90 days at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.The findings showed that opioid use was at least as prevalent on days when cannabis was used as on days when it was not and that this was irrespective of whether participants were experiencing pain or not.  The study, published in the scientific journal Addiction, is among the first to test opioid substitution directly.The study, which compared the probability of […]

The consumption of soft drugs like ganja and charas is under intense scrutiny after Rhea Chakraborty’s arrest. But did you know that before 1985, it wasn’t illegal? The derivatives of the cannabis plant are known by many names – marijuana, weed, pot, ganja, charas, hashish and more. They have a socio-religious association in India dating back hundreds of years, but never before have cannabis products been under so much of scrutiny as they are now. The arrest of Rhea Chakraborty (now out on bail) by the NCB in the drug case related to Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has led to […]

Written by MAYURA JANWALKAR , Edited by Explained Desk | Mumbai | Updated: October 8, 2020 10:47:27 am A cannabis plant in growth in California. (Bloomberg Photo: Patrick T. Fallon) At the centre of the storm around the Narcotics Control Bureau’s investigation into the alleged drug trafficking in connection with actor Rhea Chakraborty — given bail by Bombay High Court on October 7 — following the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and what has now become an ‘inquiry’ aimed at “uprooting the drug citadel in Bollywood”, is a plant that goes by many names: cannabis, hemp, marijuana or pot. […]