Jammu to pioneer India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project

Source: The post is based on the article “Jammu to pioneer India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project”  published in PIB on 23rd July 2023.

What is the News?

India’s first Cannabis Medicine Project is going to be set up in Jammu.

What is a Cannabis Research Project?

Initiative of: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu.

Type: The project is under public-private partnership (PPP) with a Canadian firm.

Purpose of the project: To produce export quality drugs meant for different kinds of neuropathies, diabetic pains etc.

– To spread awareness that this substance of abuse has diverse medicinal uses especially for the patients suffering from malignancies and other diseases.

Significance: The project has the potential to produce medicines that are currently imported from foreign countries, thereby promoting indigenous production and reducing dependency on external sources.

What is Cannabis?

Cannabis is a generic term used to denote the several psychoactive preparations of the plant Cannabis sativa. The major psychoactive constituent in cannabis is delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). 

The Mexican term ‘marijuana’ is frequently used in referring to cannabis leaves or other crude plant material in many countries.

Cannabis is by far the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused illicit drug. Half of all drug seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures.

About 147 million people, 2.5% of the world population, consume cannabis (annual prevalence) compared with 0.2% consuming cocaine and 0.2% consuming opiates.

Cannabis in India: The central law that deals with cannabis (weed or marijuana) in India is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

– The NDPS Act prohibits the sale and production of cannabis resin and flowers, but the use of leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant is permitted, with the states having the power to regulate and form the state rules for it.

– For instance, Odisha is a state in which weed is legal in India and people commonly use ‘chillums’ to smoke weed within the state’s territory. Uttarakhand is the first state in India to allow commercial cultivation of Hemp.