Cannabis in Nepal: an overview

Cannabis has been grown in Nepal, in both wild and cultivated varieties, for an extremely long time; but its uses, and attitudes toward them, have begun to change in recent years. Traditionally, Hindu yogis (more often than not pilgrims from India) have used cannabis as an aid to meditation, and male devotees use it as a symbol of fellowship in their frequent bhajans. It is also used for a wide variety of Ayurvedic medicinal purposes, both human and veterinary. Finally, it is used by older people of many castes to while away the time when they are too old to work in the fields and, until recently only secretly, by younger people in search of fun. The advent of the hippie era brought increased cultivation, greatly inflated prices, and large-scale smuggling into the provinces of northern India. Over an approximately eight-year period the attitudes of young, middle-class, urban Nepalis changed to the extent that smoking ganja (marihuana) or charas (hashish) came to be regarded as a novel, acceptable, and pleasurable mark of sophistication. All dealers' licenses were revoked on July 16, 1973, and at present it is illegal to buy, sell, or cultivate (but not to use) cannabis. Three factors contributed to this government crackdown: (1) Nepalese alarm that their own youth were being corrupted by cannabis; (2) United Nations pressure to join other "respectable" nations in outlawing cannabis; and (3) U. S. pressure for narcotic control. Despite the loss of tax revenues by the government (approximately $100,000) and profits by farmers and dealers, there has been little critical response to the new restrictions. (Author' s abstract)