Nepal’s Finance Minister, Mr. Prakash Sharan Mahat, said when announcing the budget for the fiscal year 2023-24 in Parliament that the government was studying the possibility of cultivating cannabis for medical purposes.
This news, reported by The Himalayanfollows the plea of the chief minister of Gandaki province, Surendra Raj Pandey, in favor of the legalization of cannabis and the local manufacture of alcohol.
Pandey suggested that if cannabis had medical value, it should be treated like medicine. He added that hemp cultivation and local alcohol production could be used to stimulate the economy and create jobs, while acknowledging that this would require discussions with the central government to put in place appropriate legislation.
“Cannabis is prohibited by federal law. However, it is necessary to have a debate,” he said, “if it can also be used as a medicine, we are of the opinion that we should do a new reflection on its cultivation.”
The legalization of cannabis production in Nepal has been a topic of debate for several years. The country is known for its endemic varieties of cannabis and local products like charas, considered one of the best hashes in the world.
What is the legal status of cannabis in Nepal?
Although Nepal has been considering legalizing cannabis for some time, it has not yet taken any steps in this direction. Cannabis has been illegal in the Southeast Asian country since 1976, although it has long been used for Ayurvedic medicine and as a sacred offering to the Hindu god Shiva.
Before the 1976 ban, Nepal was home to government-sanctioned shops on ‘Freak Street’, named after what came to be known as hippies. At the time, thousands of tourists traveled to get their hands on different types of hashish which were then smuggled back to Europe or the United States.
“It is not justifiable for a poor country like ours to treat cannabis like a drug,” Nepal’s health minister Birodh Khatiwada told AFP last year. “Our people are being punished…and our corruption is increasing because of smuggling, because we follow the decisions of developed countries who do as they please. »
