In what is being seen as a game-changing and even surprising step, a private member’s bill to change the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances {NDPS}, Act Of 1985, will be heard in the winter session of parliament {December 15 to January 5}. It will be introduced by Dharamvir Gandhi, an MP from Patiala. The bill seeks to make changes to the act that states that the possession and use of drugs, including marijuana, is a punishable offence. This is not to say that Dharamvir, or other supporters of this amendment which includes Maneka Gandhi, are petitioning for all drugs to be legalised, but ‘soft drugs’ such as marijuana to be made legal to regularise the market of it and eliminate criminal activity associated with it. While it has not been confirmed if the parliament will even hear it, hopes are high. Some groups, including The Great Legalisation Movement Of India, are hoping for this change, and have even organised a march in Bangalore, as well as New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram, so they can create more awareness of this. The idea of the march is also to show the leaders of our country that citizens would like freedom in this regards, and more so they’d like the regularised use of cannabis more medical purposes. This comes after a WHO statement which claims that if medically used, marijuana is not addictive. Recently, Canada came closer to legalising the otherwise banned substance, and Peru is the latest country to have made it legal.
For more details of the march, on Sunday, December 17, at 9am, follow The Great Legalisation Movement on Facebook here.
This story has information that first appeared in Swarajyamag, India Times and Newsweek.
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