Taking a cue from US President Joe Biden’s recent decision to pardon all Americans who have been convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana, the farmers, farm unions and agricultural experts in Punjab are calling for allowing cultivation of cannabis in the state. They also threw their weight behind cultivation of poppy husk, saying it too must be given the green light.
They said that its production will lessen the dependence on deadly synthetic drugs like ‘chitta’, liquor, etc., which are taking the lives of hundreds of people in the state and pushing thousands into the dark world of drug addiction.
A Bhogpur-based farmer Jaswinder Singh said that in their area bhang (marijuana) grows naturally which has no use because they cannot sell it to anyone as it is illegal, and farmers cannot grow it in their fields too. “If the government allows for its cultivation in a limited area then it can give huge returns to them which would be four to five times more than the wheat or paddy cultivation from one acre, as its price is quite high because of its use and high demand in pharmaceutical sector,” he added.
Another farmer Amrik Singh from Pathankot also demanded to allow its cultivation.
In Punjab, there is a single vend of marijuana in Hoshiarpur district which is auctioned by the excise and taxation department every year along with the auction of liquor vends.
“Small and marginal farmers must be allowed to grow cannabis under controlled conditions by issuing licence and even district-level committees must be formed for its cultivation and further use,” Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of Bharti Kisan Union (BKU) Dakaunda, said, adding that it will give them good returns even by growing it in one or two acres of land.
Along with this, cultivation of poppy husks (Dodde in the local language) too must be allowed, he said. “If Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh can grow poppy husks and Uttarakhand can cultivate cannabis, then why Punjab is not being allowed,” he asked.
Opium cultivation is legally permitted in the notified tracts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, wherein the authorities issue licences to the farmers to cultivate opium poppy.
Jagmohan Singh also said that unlike other chemical intoxicants which are claiming hundreds of lives, cannabis is a bio-intoxicant and is much less harmful than ‘chitta’ and also has a huge demand in medicine-manufacturing companies.
Sardara Singh Johal, renowned economist and former vice-chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, said that cannabis cultivation must be allowed in Punjab. Once a private member bill was tabled in Parliament by former Punjab MP Dharamvir Gandhi for making its cultivation legal and the bill also got support from several quarters, but a law could not be made, he added.
“Drug addiction cannot be wiped out 100% from any country or state, but it can be controlled and shifted towards less-harmful drugs and can be mitigated to a large extent gradually. The cultivation of cannabis and poppy must be allowed in the state as these intoxicants will not kill anyone unlike synthetic drugs such as ‘chitta’, heroin, ‘ice’, etc. Even liquor is killing several people, but our governments take pride in earning huge profits by selling liquor under its excise policy without paying attention to the source of such income and the impact of liquor on our society as it is ruining several families,” he added.
“If cultivated under controlled conditions with proper monitoring of the government, it can improve the economic conditions of our small and marginal farmers,” he said, adding that preferably the licence should be given for not more than one acre per farmer and the product should be available on licenced stores.”
“If government calls cannabis intoxicants, then what is liquor which is being sold by the government,” Johal asked.
“We grew poppy for five or six years before its cultivation was banned. Our big drawing room would remain full of bags of poppy. My observation is no one in our family, our neighbourhood or in our village (Jandiala in Jalandhar) got addicted to poppy,” said an economist who had been a visiting professor at world-class universities.
Owing to the ban on poppy cultivation in Punjab, poppy smuggling has become rampant.
“It’s a ‘Ban-Smuggle-Promote Syndrome’ that has led to poppy addiction in the state. Barring a few exceptions, why people were not addicted to it in large numbers when it was being grown here and also why people are not addicted to it in Rajasthan where it is available in abundance as its cultivation is allowed there,” the nonagenarian economist, who actively writes on agricultural issues of the state, asked.
Punjab was among the top five states in liquor consumption, according to a national survey conducted by the Centre a few years ago. Experts said that alcohol leads to maximum health complications compared to other drugs, but still the liquor problem is not taken seriously by the government.
