Three years after the Narcotics Control Bureau in Mumbai cracked down on Bollywood actor Rhea Chakraborty, following the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, Indians’ tryst with cannabis is changing dramatically. Researchers and industry experts are shedding some of the fears and misconceptions about this ancient herb — the cannabis plant’s medical benefits are now coming out of the closet. There’s an unprecedented boom in the usage of cannabidiol or CBD in India — one that comes with the AYUSH ministry’s blessings.
Across social media platforms, online businesses are selling products containing cannabis derivatives and claiming that they can alleviate pain, stress, and anxiety. Contrary to popular belief, these companies aren’t doing anything illegal — they are licensed under the AYUSH ministry. Over 50 new startups have mushroomed in India over the last three years, according to Pan India Medical Cannabis and Hemp Association (PIMCHA), a Mumabi-based trade association formed in 2021 that represents legal medical cannabis and hemp businesses.
In 2018, Uttarakhand became the first Indian state to legalise industrial hemp farming. Uttar Pradesh followed suit. Three years later, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) clarified that the sale of hemp seeds and related products is standardised under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations 2011. Cannabis cultivation is legal in some districts of Rajasthan, too, and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh said in April 2023 that the state government has plans to legalise cannabis production to boost the economy and trade.
According to hemp startups, Indians are becoming increasingly open to tackling pain, anxiety, and insomnia with CBD oil. Industry experts say that the NCB’s overreach in the Sushant Singh Rajput case boosted awareness around CBD oil products like never before and encouraged people to look up its medicinal benefits.
Derived from cannabis leaves, bhang was popularised through Bollywood Holi songs and Kumbh Melas. Now, CBD capsules, oral tinctures, roll ons, and body scrubs are shedding the remaining hesitation in Indian culture toward accepting cannabis.
Also read: Abolishing drugs a romantic notion. Legalisation is a better shot at combating addiction
The rise and rise of CBD
The global interest in the usage of the cannabis plant has been on the rise ever since Canada and some US states legalised the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana.
“Cannabis leaves were always a part of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and excluded from the NDPS Act as a non-narcotic — we were just not aware of its potential,” says Varun Rungta, CEO of cannabis research company Oreka and general secretary at PIMCHA.
In India, awareness boomed when Rhea Chakraborty got involved in an alleged drug possession controversy in 2020. The tragedy of Rajput’s suicide and ensuing investigations turned into good PR for the cannabis industry — Google data from September 2020 shows a sharp peak in searches around ‘CBD’ in India.
“It was actually the two months that clocked in the highest sales for the industry in some manner because a lot of people started talking about CBD,” says Delzaad Deolaliwala, co-founder and chief legal officer at Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO) and chairperson at PIMCHA. Narcotics officers met with BOHECO representatives to gain knowledge about the products from an industry perspective. “Before this, there was no minister, IAS officer, or authority that wanted to even discuss cannabis with us because they thought it was all bad and illegal,” he adds.
Parts of the plant
Cannabis is regulated under the NDPS Act, which mandates that the production and sale of the flower and resin of the plant are illegal but not that of the leaves, seeds, and stems.
The flower and resin — locally known as ganja and charas — are prohibited because they contain high amounts of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the primary psychoactive compound found in cannabis plants. THC is responsible for the mind-altering effects associated with cannabis use. CBD, though, another substance found in cannabis leaves, isn’t addictive, causes no mind-altering effects, and is touted to have many medicinal benefits. Hemp seeds are also low on THC and are a good source of protein.
In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its approval for Epidiolex, a CBD-only component, which can treat rare and severe forms of epilepsy — the world’s first cannabis-derived medicine.
Origin stories
In India, cannabis was sold at pet care shops, which would be bought by people too. Today, people are boldly demanding these products without hesitation.
In 2012, Yash Kotak, 32, was part of a student initiative that launched a solar rural electrification project in Rajasthan. Having visited several remote parts of northern India, he observed that cannabis is widely grown in the states upwards of Rajasthan. He saw people in rural areas using cannabis and its products for subsistence, wild hemp fibres to make ropes, and consuming hemp seeds as a superfood.
“People in villages consider cannabis as hope; it’s people in the cities that think of it as dope,” Kotak says. A year later, he co-founded BOHECO, where he is CMO currently.
For Kotak, the enterprise’s job was to transform this image of cannabis — from dope to hope.
Richa Jaggi, 33, became aware of the many benefits of hemp when her pet dog Champ was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. When the vet suggested trying out CBD, which Jaggi sourced from a friend who went to Amsterdam, she saw good results. “I gave that to my dog, and found him better rested and his appetite improved,” she says. Although the dog died, the medicine eased the treatment — and Jaggi found a new purpose in life. She set up Awshad, an online CBD store in 2021.
For Vishak Vivek, the awakening came while he was in Australia. “Around 2018, I met a guy in Australia who had established a multi-million dollar company with hemp seeds. When I asked him how he came about this idea, he said that he got the inspiration while travelling in India,” he says.
For Vivek, hemp is a climate-friendly solution to alleviate extreme poverty among farmers in Uttarakhand. He says that weather conditions, land quality, and resources available in Uttarakhand are perfect for the cultivation of industrial hemp. Moreover, hemp does not get damaged by animals unlike other crops. Investing in hemp farming can help create businesses and job opportunities in the state and lift families out of poverty.
His startup called Ukhi, incubated while he was at IIT Madras in 2019, educates farmers on processing cannabis seeds and fibres and helps them get started on industrial hemp farming.
Policy change and research
Kotak’s BOHECO has been proactively working toward shedding the perception of cannabis as a problem. The CMO says there are joint means to achieve that end — one is policy development and the other is science and research.“In 2013, we started working with the state of Uttarakhand. Till 2016, we handheld the state to help it develop a policy,” Kotak says. But where policy made headway, science lagged behind— not even a single commercial entity was growing cannabis till late last year.
“The seed breeds that were required to cultivate [cannabis] commercially were unavailable. Ideally, the state should have come up with a research policy, developed varieties, and then raised the hopes of the farming communities,” he adds.
The CMO adds that the seed research programme could have been developed along the lines of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute’s (IARI) basmati rice research projects. The new industrial hemp needed to have good fibre quality and low THC. In 2016, BOHECO applied for a research license and partnered with the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-National Botanical Research Institute (CSIR-NBRI) to work on a seed breeding programme. “We started by working on two plots — one in Uttarakhand and the other in Lucknow,” Kotak says.
DCGI approvals
One of the major roadblocks to the acceptance of CBD oil-based products in India is the lack of approval from the DCGI, which standardises the manufacturing, sales, import, and distribution of drugs in India. CBD oil-based products are licensed by the AYUSH ministry under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940.
“No matter how much we promote the products through Ayurveda, the wider acceptance for it will come only if we have MDs prescribing these products,” says Jaggi. “Those doctors, however, will only recommend DCGI-approved products, which require more stringent and expensive clinical trials.”
Amid such a rigid framework, the country’s R&D lags. “India generally is not an innovator when it comes to new drug development, it’s mostly copycat products that come into play,” says Rungta.
And even if cannabis makes it through these hurdles, there are more challenges to be mounted. These drugs will be breaking into the niche market of pain management where drugs like fentanyl and morphine are already popular, explains Deolaliwala. Proving that they are better will be very tough — and expensive.
Moreover, Indian companies are too immature to invest the required capital and time for the research; and that too when an alternative phytopharmaceutical pathway already exists, he adds.
Industry experts say that hemp farming can support several parallel industries. The seeds can also be used to make protein powders, while the stems can be used to create breathable fabrics that can rival cotton. Research suggests that cannabis cultivation alone can be a climate change mitigation strategy — the crop is twice as effective as trees at absorbing and locking up carbon. Companies like BOHECO and UKHI are also excited about the possibilities of making climate-friendly fabrics, paper, and bioplastics.
The global hemp market was valued at $6.8 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $18.1 billion by 2027. “[For] India, the capital of generic drug manufacturing, this is a huge economic opportunity to participate in the trade,” Rungta adds. This could be at the level of producing the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) or the final product formulation — be it for the unmet market needs in India or for expanding global exports.
Rungta says it is important to study the cannabis industry’s job creation potential in India. Wild cannabis grows in nearly 60 per cent of the country’s districts, but all of it gets either burnt or consumed for recreation purposes, according to Kotak.
“Our hypothesis to the government was that if you look at something like a problem, you will treat it like a problem. But if you look at it as a solution, you will come up with ways to grow the potential,” he says.
For Vivek, hemp farming holds the answer to restoring the hundreds of ghost villages in Uttarakhand, where residents have abandoned their homes due to the lack of livelihood.
Possibility of illegal business & misuse
Will an expanding cannabis industry give way to possible misuse of the drug? According to German data firm ABCD, Delhi is the third-largest marijuana consumer in the world, while Mumbai ranks sixth. The 2018 report pointed to an already thriving illegal drugs business.
“The illegal industry is already very large – there are products from Himachal that are very popular globally,” Deolaliwala added.
But better policies can turn this illegal industry into a contributor to India’s growth story and healthcare. “A farmer can harvest resin and flowers right now anyway if they want to, but if there is a safer and more palatable way to consume CBD, then a consumer will prefer those options,” Jaggi adds.
Moreover, industrial hemp has only 0.3 per cent THC, which isn’t potent enough for recreational use. “You won’t get a high. You could smoke through an acre’s worth of flowers, and all you will get is a bad headache,” Kotak says.
Kotak says that the cannabis industry must exercise strict scrutiny and thorough self-governance to prevent drug misuse.
“We are not shying away [from the fact] that there is potential for misuse. But there are ways to reduce it — on a formulation level by the companies that are marketing these products,” Rungta adds.
Hemp education
Another major roadblock for the cannabis industry is the stigma against CBD, which has never been illegal in terms of its production or distribution in India.
With the formation of PIMCHA, the industry has taken it upon itself to educate stakeholders — consumers or narcotics officials.
“We provide protection measures for every stakeholder in the industry, by initiating conversations among the stakeholders about the documentation required and understanding which parts of the products are legal,” says Deolaliwala.
Although the educated elite in cities, especially those who have had the opportunity to travel abroad, understand the key difference between CBD oil and the recreational use of marijuana, a lot of work remains to be done among the foundation blocks of the industry – the farmers.
Vivek is not only educating farmers about the potential of hemp farming but has also set up a studio in Faridabad to showcase the kind of products – other than CBD oil – that can be created with hemp fibres and seeds.
Vivek says that another hurdle is the farmers’ inaccessibility to the industry, market players, and licensing organisations. Small farmers with scarce financial resources have to spend thousands of rupees travelling to cities, registering for a licence that itself costs Rs 1,500, and wading through tardy official processes. All of it for little rewards at the end.
“The average land holding that the farmer has will give them a yield worth barely Rs 2,000 to 4,000. It is barely profitable,” he says.
Moreover, bhang leaves cannot be sold directly to industry players. The excise department first collects the leaves from across the country and then distributes them to companies. And farmers, owing to the lack of proper skills training and education, get poor quality stocks with about 30 per cent dirt, twigs, sticks, and seeds.
“Cleaning it is a nightmare – there is no standardisation or quality control. This is the same bhang that goes to the shops in Rajasthan. [The] only difference is, they make thandai, we make dawai,” he adds.
The bhang industry invests a lot of money into sorting it. As a result, the value of the end product shoots up.
Long-term agenda
Along with the acceptance of CBD, Kotak says that the younger companies in the market are now coming with some exposure to recreational cannabis. These organisations want to ultimately legalise it in India.
“I think the legalisation of cannabis for recreation is definitely coming – the main reason being that the US is already doing it. Globally, countries are legalising it. There is tremendous revenue to be made,” Kotak says.
Kotak says that the pushback will come from the alcohol industry — research has shown that when people start consuming marijuana, their alcohol consumption drops.
“The use of cannabis should not be in the same category as other narcotics like heroin or crack consumption,” he says.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)