India has so much cannabis, yet profits so little from it, says new book exploring country’s relationship with drugs

Journalist Karan Madhok’s Ananda: An Exploration of Cannabis in India is an earnest examination of our country’s uneasy relationship with the plant. Madhok travels to the heartlands of cannabis, from Himachal Pradesh, the source of the legendary Malana Cream strain, to Visakhapatnam, which has emerged as a major conduit for ganja smugglers. Along the way, he meets hemp farmers in Uttarakhand—which, along with Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has allowed controlled cultivation—scientists working on strains with Tetrahydrocannabinol content (THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in the plant) below the legally permissible 0.3%, activists crusading for its decriminalisation and legalisation, and members of the Satjal, a “weed-smoking, martial-arts-practicing, dragon-god-worshipping” social group in Manipur.

The title of the book takes after anandamide, a fatty acid neurotransmitter in our brains that produces feelings of joy or bliss, which THC is famously successful at emulating.

Despite India’s deep-rooted history with cannabis and its vast natural reserves, the country remains a negligible player in the booming global hemp industry, says the author. Excerpts from an interview.

Controlled cultivation of cannabis in India seems to be a one-step-forward, two-steps-backward exercise. Is there any state that could actually make it work?

Hemp-derived CBD medication, hemp seeds oils, and hemp fabric — those are already happening in Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. But the process of actually getting a license to enter the market is difficult for small farmers. The production of hemp is both overregulated and misunderstood, even in the states where its cultivation has been legalized. But this is a general problem in India. I have an example in the book about an Ayurveda ashram in Kerala that started a hemp-based Ayurvedic program. They used legally cultivated hemp from Uttarakhand, sold by Bombay Hemp Company. But Kerala’s anti-cannabis laws are so strict that the police simply confiscated all the products, forcing the program to shut down. There’s a huge misunderstanding across the country about what’s legal and what’s not when it comes to cannabis. Again, the problem with the 0.3% THC policy is that it’s difficult to achieve in real-world farming. Even though some farmers have managed it, it takes several lifecycles of the plant to create consistency, so they have to get their hemp tested every year. Most startups source their raw material from Uttarakhand, and one of their biggest complaints is that the entire process is a mess—there’s no clear way to determine if their crop meets legal THC requirements. And then, in a Kumbh Mela year like this one, they simply don’t have enough cannabis to work with. Also read | The Taste by Vir Sanghvi: Breaking myths and embracing India’s cannabis tradition

Cannabis or hemp is said to be cultivated in about 60% of India’s districts, but you write that our contribution to the global hemp market is just 0.0002%.

According to some hemp startups, Uttarakhand alone has more cannabis—wild cannabis—than the entire country of Canada. It’s a shame that we have so much of this resource yet profit so little from it. Take the company Hara, for example. It’s one of the largest manufacturers of pre-rolled paper cones with filter tips, producing around 1.2 billion cones annually for some of the world’s biggest paper cone brands. Hara has about 14 factories in and around Delhi and employs around 4,000 people.

Meanwhile, China is running away with the industry. While recreational cannabis laws there are strict, two Chinese provinces alone account for about 70% of global hemp production. They’re exporting vast amounts of hemp—it’s just another product they’ve become world leaders in.

You’ve described Visakhapatnam as the ‘City of Ganja’ in your book. How big a hub is it?

Visakhapatnam is a port city and a major railway junction, handling a high volume of trains. A lot of ganja is cultivated north of Visakhapatnam, around the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border, and the Red Corridor. The city has become the central hub for moving and distributing cannabis across the country. Most people assume that illegally transported cannabis in India comes from the North, but over the last decade, the Andhra-Odisha region has emerged as a prime source. A special strain from the region called Sheelavathi is in high demand, replacing many older varieties, including the once-infamous Idukki Gold. In fact, there isn’t much Idukki Gold left in Kerala anymore. Also read | Brain fog after quitting cannabis? Study reveals startling truth about weed and long-term memory loss

The Ministry of Ayush controls the medicinal use of cannabis. Do you see this as a step forward?

Being under the Ayush ministry gives cannabis the legitimacy of alternative medicine. But at the same time, a lot of people who swear by allopathy might not take it seriously. In the West, it’s allopathic doctors who are leading the conversation on cannabis for medical use. I think cannabis as medicine will take a bigger leap in India when Western or allopathic doctors here start serious research and openly advocate for its benefits.