KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Broadly to be had marijuana as soon as drew hundreds of hippies to Nepal, the place its use used to be no longer best approved however embedded in each the tradition and faith.
However the nation adopted different international locations in outlawing marijuana within the overdue Nineteen Seventies and chased away the hippies who got here on buses from Europe and United States.
Part a century later, campaigners are in search of to once more legalize the farming, use and export of marijuana as extra international locations permit its medicinal and leisure use.
Supporters have presented a invoice in Parliament that will legalize marijuana, even supposing debate has been not on time by way of proceeding squabbles between political events for energy.
“We’re difficult the legalization of marijuana in Nepal at the beginning for medicinal functions for sufferers who’re demise,” Rajiv Kafle, a marketing campaign chief, mentioned at his “Hippie Hill” retreat within the mountains surrounding the capital, Kathmandu.
Kafle, who lives with HIV, mentioned marijuana helped him take care of ache and saved him clear of alcohol and different medicine.
Marijuana use is broadly approved in Nepal. It used to be freely farmed and attracted Western hippies within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies. Alternatively, force from Western governments made Nepal introduce rules making marijuana and different narcotics unlawful.
Some portraits of essentially the most respected Hindu god, Shiva, display him smoking marijuana. Devotees and Hindu holy males are incessantly noticed smoking in temples.
Marijuana crops incessantly develop wild in villages, however police occasionally damage crops grown on farms on the market.
It isn’t tricky to shop for marijuana in towns, the place there are literally thousands of customers.
“You’ll be able to see everybody smoking in Nepal from younger children to previous other folks,” mentioned Polish vacationer Lukasz Walendziak.
Kafle and a coworker at his retreat have been detained final month by way of police and launched on bail however face narcotic distribution fees.
Beneath the legislation, somebody possessing marijuana for private use will also be jailed for a month, however distribution and gross sales are punishable by way of as much as 10 years’ imprisonment relying at the quantity of marijuana seized.
Kafle mentioned legalization of marijuana may just receive advantages the rustic’s financial system by way of attracting vacationers, including that it used to be the arriving of hippies that introduced vacationers to Nepal.
“With our low value of manufacturing and the aggressive edge we have now within the international marketplace for hashish, we no doubt are going to win and that is going to switch the rustic,” he mentioned.
The campaigners have satisfied some politicians of the advantages of legalizing marijuana.
Well being minister Birod Khatiwada, a formidable member of the governing coalition, has been lobbying for the proposed invoice and has registered for debate in Parliament at the factor. He mentioned about 9,000 individuals are these days in prison on marijuana-related fees.
“I’m seeking to make it a marketing campaign and factor in Parliament as a result of many nations together with essentially the most robust and evolved international locations have allowed using marijuana,” Khatiwada mentioned.
“The brand new legislation would insure that the ease isn’t going to visit one industrialist or small team of businesspeople however moderately it’s going to receive advantages the deficient farmers who would use their small plots of land to develop it,” he mentioned.
