Cannabis (Marijuana):
- Marijuana is a greenish-grey mixture of the dried, shredded leaves and flowers of plant Cannabis sativa.
- It is also called as weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane.
- The main psychoactive (mind-altering) chemical in marijuana, responsible for most of the intoxicating effects that people seek, is delta-9-tetra-hydro-cannabinol (THC).
- Compounds which are structurally similar to THC are referred to as
- Consumption: Some people smoke marijuana in hand-rolled cigarettes called joints; or in pipes (sometimes called bongs). It can also be used to brew tea and fixed into foods.
- Cannabis is by far the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused illicit drug. Half of all drug seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures.
- Present status in India:
- The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act of 1985 criminalises the cannabis plant, ganja and charas but not bhang.
- However, Uttarakhand, Jammu and — as of this month Uttar Pradesh — have allowed restricted cultivation of the plant for medical research.
Cannabidiol vs tetrahydrocannabinol (THC):
- All drugs obtained from marijuana plant have an important medical ingredient called Cannabidiol (CBD), which is arousing interest in the scientific community due to its medical and therapeutic capabilities, but doesn’t cause intoxication or euphoria (the ‘high’).
- But the plant itself has been banned because of another component, called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is psychoactive and produces a High.
Human Trials:
- Last year, the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), a J&K based lab of the CSIR (CSIR-IIIM), obtained a license for cultivation of cannabis (marijuana) in Jammu & Kashmir to study their medicinal properties.
- Now CSIR-IIIM is planning to conduct clinical trials of the drugs on terminally ill patients of cancer, epilepsy and sickle cell anaemia.
- CSIR-IIIM, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will soon sign an agreement to carry ahead the research programme on a larger scale.
- Global scenario: While India is yet to start any human trial, the US drug regulator has already approved a cannabis-based drug Epidiolex recently for the first time to treat epileptic syndromes.
