Yes, there are downsides to legalizing marijuana
4 Downsides
APEX Series
MARIJUANA
4 Downsides
5 Government stand (Apr 26)
When “chillandgreen”, an Instagram page with over 52,000 followers run by Nepali administrators, asked marijuana users about their ‘bad trip’ experience, the answers from some ‘recreational’ users were funny, but also appalling. “One night I was smoking alone and didn’t know how potent the weed was. I was getting paranoid which is normal when you smoke weed,” a user wrote. “I lay on my bed when the weed hit hard. I felt like I was melting and was being absorbed by my bed.” The user then goes on to add that “although it is funny to think about it now, the experience was rather scary.”
“I heard whispers and kids singing Happy Birthday and freaked myself to soberness,” another user posted, while yet another user wrote about leaving a shoe in the refrigerator in the state of intoxication. “Smoked too much bong. Almost puked my intestines out and slept on the floor without a blanket in January,” pop came another comment.
These would be the perfect fodder for jokes were it not for the fact that the number of marijuana-related emergency cases have shot up in countries where it is legal, according to media reports. Perhaps it is something to worry about in Nepal, whose healthcare is still primitive and whose doctors are not used to handling these cases. The international media has also been reporting about the short and long term health effects of marijuana on individuals, even as there are also more and more stories about its supposed medical benefits.
Many medical cannabis researchers claim marijuana can be used for treatment of multiple ailments like chronic pain, nausea, muscle spasms, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, low appetite, autism, epilepsy (seizure disorders) and other conditions. Yet recent media reports also raise questions about how an underdeveloped country like Nepal can handle the downsides of a potentially steep rise in the number of marijuana users if the stuff is legalized here.
Little is known
Colorado, the first American state to commercially legalize marijuana, has seen a sharp rise in the numbers of emergency room patients high on marijuana. A study, prompted by three deaths tied to edible cannabis products, and published in Annals of Medicine on March 26 lists 2,567 marijuana-related emergency visits at an undisclosed Denver hospital from 2012-2016.
Funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the study titled Acute Illness Associated With Cannabis Use, by Route of Exposure: An Observational Study begins with the premise that “little is known about the relative harms of edible and inhalable cannabis products.” According to the report, marijuana-infused foods and candies, called edibles, also led to symptoms such as repeated vomiting, racing hearts and psychotic episodes. Intoxication and heart problems were other common complaints.
Similarly, Canada’s Global News reports that doctors in Halifax, Canada have regularly dealt with cases of negative health effects of cannabis consumption. “We do see a lot of cannabis hyperemesis—people who have prolonged vomiting from heavy cannabis use. We have a lot of anxiety attacks. We do have a lot of people who come in who’ve suffered motor vehicle crashes while they’ve been under the influence of cannabis,” the news article quotes Dr. Sam Campbell, the chief emergency physician at the QEII Health Sciences Center.
Global News also reports that mental health can be negatively affected by cannabis consumption. It quotes emergency department psychiatrist Dr. Sumeer Bhalla as saying: “If someone exhibits signs of psychosis [from the consumption of cannabis] and they’re not treated properly or looked after, then it can get worse and be detrimental to their life.” He adds that research in the field of cannabis health benefits isn’t readily available and that it’s difficult to establish that there are mental health benefits of medical cannabis.
In Nepal, despite the ban on marijuana, access to it is easy and rampant, experts fear. Albeit illegal for purchase for underage children, alcohol, cigarettes and tobacco are still being openly sold to young children and the government has not been able to regulate their sales. In this context, if marijuana is legalized, there is a fear that its use among adolescents might explode.
Caught on camera
Sunoj Kaini, academic director of Rhedon Education Foundation, says children as young as 15 or 16 are already being exposed to marijuana and legalization could make it worse. “Just this week our CCTV camera caught someone selling marijuana to a young kid right in front of our college,” Kaini says, while also admitting that college administration has found its own students possessing marijuana. “When the youngsters start on marijuana, they become less attentive in class. They are sleepy and dizzy all the time and there is an increase in absenteeism.”
Kaini adds that with timely intervention of the school and parents, most students have been saved from addiction and from going into hard drugs. His college also conducts regular counselling sessions on drug abuse. He emphasizes the need for families to regularly monitor their children to protect them from drug abuse. Access to marijuana is something even the police has found difficult to control, admits Hemanta Malla Thakuri, former Deputy Inspector General of the Nepal Police. Thakuri, who has been closely following the enforcement of the marijuana ban in Nepal, informs that the Makwanpur district in Province 3 is the largest producer and exporter of cannabis in the country while illicit farming is also abundant in Dhading, Makwanpur, Baglung and even Bajhang in the far-west.
“The problem is, cannabis can grow anywhere and there are whole communities involved in farming it,” Thakuri says. “People from neighboring districts of the Kathmandu valley supply it here in small doses, which also makes it difficult for the police to track.”
Although Thakuri is not against legalization of cannabis in Nepal, he stresses the need for more research and homework. “The arguments for legalization are still not convincing,” he says. “We do not have sufficient studies to back their medical use. Neither do we have proper regulations that can manage recreational use. Also, I think our neighboring countries might put pressure on us to not legalize cannabis.”
Into hard drugs
Thakuri adds the International Narcotics Control Board—an independent, quasi-judicial expert body established by the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961—has been vigorously protesting against the legalization of marijuana in parts of US, Canada and other developed countries. In this state, Nepal’s legalization possibilities are slim because of the many international treaties it has signed. Also, he points out, Nepal is not ready to bear the consequences of widespread marijuana use among its youngsters. “Marijuana has different effects on different people but, in my experience, in the long run, it makes the users rather aggressive and it is also a gateway to hard drugs,” he says.
“We call it the second gateway drug, the first being cigarettes,” says Karma Sherpa, director of Re-Unity Nepal Detoxification Center in Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu. “The number of hard drug users at rehab centers have decreased significantly and have been replaced by pharmaceutical drug [medicinal tablets and cough syrups] and marijuana users.” The difference between those seeking treatment for pharmaceutical drug addiction and marijuana addiction, Sherpa explains, is that while the former affects the users physically, regular marijuana use is known to take a heavy toll on mental health as well.
“We’ve been observing that even schoolchildren are now smoking marijuana and 80-90 percent of these users get addicted to hard drugs like heroin and cocaine later in their lives,” Sherpa says. “Although marijuana might not be as addictive as other drugs and its withdrawal symptoms are comparatively less during detoxification, it definitely takes a toll on the mental health of users.” Sherpa informs that marijuana users admitted to his center for detoxification are treated as psychiatric patients.
All this suggests that as lucrative as the legalization of marijuana might sound, the possible downsides should also be adequately considered. Our traditional ayurveda medicines might have remedies with cannabis as their ingredients but research on them are old and their competitiveness in international market is questionable. APEX also found most health professionals in Nepal are totally unaware of how to deal with a potential marijuana epidemic.
Besides, medical marijuana has still not received validation from international drug agencies. Even the United States Food & Drugs Administration does not designate cannabis as a medicine. “To date, the agency has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition. FDA has, however, approved one cannabis-derived and three cannabis-related drug products. These approved products are only available with a prescription from a licensed healthcare provider,” the FDA website reads.
Yet there is a growing number of independent lobbyists and political leaders who believe Nepal will be best served by legalization. In the next article in this series, we talk to respective government agencies on plans (if any) on legalizing cannabis in Nepal.
Creating Nepal’s own brand of orchestra music
In Nepal, traditional folk music still sells the best. Post-modern genres like pop, rock and hip-hop are fast catching up. In this climate, Western classical music seems to have limited scope. There are enough students learning to play violins, violas and pianos yet the opportunities for them to showcase their skills are few and far between. They are limited to performing on small stages and quiet venues in duos, trios, quartets or even quintets but a concert for a full-fledged chamber orchestra is a rare occasion.
The Annapurna Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble of talented and experienced musicians playing different instruments that is trying to change the orchestra scene of Nepal by organizing shows and giving platforms to young musicians. Led by Rajkumar Shrestha, a veteran musician and music instructor who is also the director and conductor of the orchestra, the orchestra has around 40 members in its senior team and 30 in its junior ensemble.
Internationally, a chamber orchestra is considered a small orchestra with from 30-40 instrumentalists playing together, but in Nepal, seeing so many musicians perform on stage at the same time is a unique sight. Founded in 2014, the orchestra has been performing at different venues in the country and is in the final phase of its registration as a non-profit.
“Our goal is to give our students a platform to perform on stage and at the same time create a written archive of Nepali music”
Rajkumar Shrestha, Director and conductor, The Annapurna Chamber Orchestra
“Our goal is to give our students a platform to perform on stage and at the same time create a written archive of Nepali music,” informs Shrestha, 59, who has been a musician and music instructor for over three decades now. Shrestha adds that the orchestration of old Nepali music will create a timeless history and the scores produced in the process can in the future be performed by all musicians who can sight-read and play music.
Shrestha’s students and also the founding members of the orchestra—Yogesh Dagoriya, 33, and Sudhakar Wosti, 37—agree. “Our students are thrilled when we give them the opportunity to perform for an audience as it helps them enhance their skills,” says Dagoriya. Adds Wosti: “We can also create more interest in the audience by orchestrating Nepali music and showing them that Nepali music can also be performed on classical Western instruments.”
The orchestra, its members inform, is an ensemble of three divisions of violin, as well as cello, double bass, woodwind section, brass section, along with the traditional sitar and madal. More than limiting itself to paying classical canons as orchestras abroad do, the Annapurna Chamber Orchestra looks to blend a bit of Eastern music to create interesting music for Nepali audiences and foreigners alike.
The senior orchestra consists of prolific musicians aged 10-50 (skill has got nothing to do with age here) while the junior orchestra has students aged 7-15 years perform together. All the orchestra performers learn and practice their parts on their own and meet occasionally to rehearse the whole set.
“Lack of proper space is our biggest problem,” Shrestha says. “We sometimes have to practice in a group of 40 and finding a hall big enough to accommodate us is difficult.” The orchestra, being a non-profit, also suffers from lack of funds. “But we have been able to get along with the help of our friends and well-wishers,” he adds. “My friend Jayadev Krishna Shrestha has been our biggest patron yet and with his support, we have been able to organize rehearsal sessions and concerts.”
The orchestra is all set to perform at the Rastriya Nacchghar, Jamal on April 14 which is the Nepali New Year’s day. The free concert will have both the junior and senior ensembles performing orchestrated arrangements of classic Nepali patriotic songs. (We have a short video with the article to give our audience a feel of what to expect.)
Our children need not go abroad for education
Even as investments have steadily grown in other areas, the education sector has been comparatively lacking. In a country where the government-run educational institutions are generally shunned, private schools have been trying to fill the quality gap.
But for students and parents from relatively richer families, sending children abroad for education has been a preferred option. It is to counter this trend and to give Nepali children access to quality education that the Kathmandu World School opened its doors in 2018.
Located at Suryabinayak, Gundu, KWS offers top-notch infrastructure supported by state-of-the-art facilities in a serene and peaceful location, creating a unique learning environment. Spread over almost seven acres of lush greenery and abundant natural beauty, KWS is the brainchild of some of the most experienced Nepali educators, and established in association with CG Holdings (Chaudhary Group). The school offers full-fledged programs from grade I to XII and can accommodate 1,500 students including 390 residents.
Rajendra Kumar Ghising, PhD, the Chief Executive Officer of KWS, talks to Sunny Mahat of APEX about his almost three-decade-long career in education, what brought him to KWS and about the school’s future plans.
Parents have become aware of the importance of good education for their children and they are ready to invest in it
Tell us briefly about your career and how you came to join the KWS team.
I started as an office assistant in the Kathmandu-based GEMS school in 1991. I had never thought this would be my long-term career. But I kept getting new challenges, opportunities and roles in the same institution, which made me stick with it for almost 25 years. In this time, I learned the ropes of school management. During my time with GEMS, I also completed my Phd in Management from the Angeles University, Philippines. By the time I left GEMS, I had been working as its Chief Executive Officer for eight years.
For KWS, I was approached by Dr Khagendra Prasad Ojha, a leading educationalist in Nepal and also my EMBA teacher. He offered me this challenging job of establishing a completely new international-standard school in Nepal. I thus joined KWS at its inception in 2015.
What does KWS offer to its prospective students?
KWS is a project that started with a lot of expert inputs and research. We travelled extensively in India and Singapore to understand how international-standard schools operate. That research and our own pool of experts have created this school in Nepal with world-class infrastructures, facilities and safety measures for students.
At KWS, we have adopted the latest teaching-learning pedagogy in alignment with the International Primary Curriculum. We follow progressive education and we focus on value-based education. Besides academic knowledge, we want to give our students Eastern values as well. We want to teach them sympathy and empathy and what it means to be honest and to love their country. We want to pass values onto our students and make them responsible citizens.
This is an ambitious project which, instead of making money, is aimed at retaining Nepali students who are now having to go abroad. We want to prove that we can provide the same quality of education that residential schools in India or other countries offer.
What do you think is missing in the Nepali education sector right now?
A pragmatic approach and practical education. Students who have studied in private schools here come out intellectually sound but we could never produce students who loved their country. For this, I blame the curriculum, the schools themselves and, of course, the parents.
Almost all parents are preparing to send their children abroad as soon as they complete their XII grade. It has become a matter of prestige. They are competing with each other and hence this mindset has been passed on to children as well. Their goal has become to go abroad for higher studies at any cost.
This mindset has to change. Our curriculum needs to change. We should be able to teach our children that it is not necessary to go abroad to create a future for themselves. We have enough colleges and educational institutions that can provide quality education here. There are also enough opportunities to work and live in their own country.
Do you think Nepal is ready for a school like KWS in terms of affordability?
Parents have become aware of the importance of good education for their children and they are ready to invest in it. They know if they give good education to their children, they need not worry about saving for their future. Also, the socio-economic status of the country has improved. We found around 1,500 Nepali students studying in India alone, with their monthly fee exceeding InRs 100,000. If the parents can spend so much to send their children away to distant countries, they can definitely afford our school when they realize that the quality of education at KWS is really high.
Our goal is to be a leading educational institution with a reputation for excellence not only in Nepal but the South Asian region as well. We want to have students from all over Nepal and at least from other Asian countries.
‘Super food’ from Sara
The loss of essential nutrients in our fruits and vegetables has long worried scientists, doctors and consumers. One way out has been greater consumption of nutrition-rich, naturally-produced healthy foods, also known as ‘super foods’. The trend has caught up in Nepal too and for the past two years, Sara Foods has been selling a variety of super foods, organic juices and essential oil to its Nepali customers.
Sara Foods, a trademark of the Sara Worldwide Business Pvt Ltd, is one of the very few Nepali companies specializing in health foods. With a physical store at Kalanki and a fully operational online store, Sara Foods sells imported and locally sourced food products that are difficult to find elsewhere.
Their website lists products like alfalfa grass powder, quinoa, flax seed oil, rose tea and milk thistle powder among other super foods recommended by health experts around the world for their high nutritional value and medicinal properties.
“We started by importing, producing and packaging health foods for our families and friends,” says Shankar Pandey, the owner of Sara Foods. “Then we marketed our products among the expat community at various farmers’ market across the city. Today, we are a full-fledged company capable of meeting any market demand.”
Having satisfied local consumers with its products, Sara Foods has been planning to sell abroad
Sara Foods is the brainchild of Pandey, who grew up among farmers in the agriculturally-rich Kapilvastu district in Province 5. This gave him firsthand knowledge of how crops and vegetables are produced and how some farmers use chemicals to enhance their produces.
“I don’t solely blame the farmers for using genetically modified seeds or pesticides to increase production,” Pandey says. “They have to take care of their expenses too. With the growing population to feed and lack of manpower to work in the fields, they may have no other option.” But Pandey also blames consumers who are now more concerned with how the food looks rather than how it tastes or how it is produced.
“This is why imported genetically modified apples sell more than our local apples from Jumla. They look better than our apples which are crooked and shapeless but which nonetheless are organic and tasty.”
A firm believer in the essential role of good food for physical and mental health, Pandey started looking for locally available super foods and thus Sara Foods took shape. The quest for organic and healthy nutrients also made him import some essentials from abroad. “On special requests of my expat clients, I import products like quinoa, chia seeds and flax seeds,” Pandey says. “We sell over 200 products at Sara with high nutritional values. This has allowed us to build a strong customer base in a relatively short time.”
Asked if the consumers are satisfied with the prices, which tend to be on the higher side compared to food products available at normal grocery stores, Pandey replies that considering the quality and health benefits of his products, the prices are moderate. “When people are spending so much on junk and unhealthy food, our health products cannot be considered expensive,” Pandey reasons.
“Our products have health benefits that you cannot get from normal everyday food,” he adds, giving the example of the “black grape seeds” which have anti-aging and anti-cancer properties. The apple cider vinegar produced at Sara is also completely organic, with no catalysts, Pandey informs, and yet sell for half the price of other imported apple cider vinegar products.
Having satisfied local consumers with its products, Sara Foods has been planning to sell abroad. “We have had trade inquires and even orders from other countries,” Pandey says. “But as our government cannot give us proper documentation to export, our export plans have been shelved”.
An economic case for legal marijuana
3 Economic benefits
APEX Series
MARIJUANA
3 Economic benefits
4 Downsides (Apr 12)
5 Government stand (Apr 26)
Chintan Tiwari, 21, a young entrepreneur, is already planning to cash in on the growing global marijuana economy. He has opened accounts on international shopping websites and is planning for photo shoots of hemp bags, slippers and kurtas he wants to sell globally. Although there are existing manufacturers selling hemp products in the US and Europe, Tiwari sees an opportunity for himself as a reseller and marketer. “I see bags which I can easily outsource for 600-700 rupees being sold for 30-35 dollars on international websites. If cannabis is legalized in Nepal and raw materials for the hemp products can be easily procured, it’s going to be a million-dollar business for me.” Similarly, Nawaraj Adhikari, who makes hemp bags in his handicraft workshop at Nepaltar, Balaju, is all praise for Nepali hemp products which he says are popular mostly among Japanese tourists for their strength, durability, exotic looks and non-allergic properties. “I source raw materials from local vendors in Thamel who get them from the rural parts of Nepal where cannabis still grows wildly. The security forces destroy any plantations they find but somehow the traders manage to secure the non-consumable parts of the plant and make hemp fibers with them,” Adhikari says. “But as our suppliers can only source them from the wild, the raw materials are expensive.”
The worldwide legal cannabis industry is projected to grow to $16.9 billion in 2019
Adhikari buys hemp cloths for Rs 300-350 a meter, depending on the quality. He thinks that as many developed countries have legalized the consumption and farming of marijuana, Nepal should follow suit, at least for commercial purposes. He sees a huge potential in hemp clothing, which he believes can replace many other artificial fibers.
Globally, many countries that had earlier banned the “psycho-active” substance have now opened up to its diverse recreational, medicinal and commercial use. The world has realized that the cannabis plant can not only be rolled up for a joint, but can also be used for medical purposes as well as for manufacturing durable, breathable textiles, beauty products, food products like hemp milk or hemp protein powder, paper, construction materials and much more.
According to Arcview Market Research and its partner BDS Analytics, the worldwide legal cannabis industry is projected to grow to $16.9 billion in 2019, a significant increase from $12.2 billion in 2018.
Another research firm Grand View Research, Inc. forecasts a global legal marijuana market of $146.4 billion by 2025. According to Financial Times, spending on cannabis in Canada has hit $4.4 billion in the fourth quarter of this year, equivalent to 0.5 percent of all household spending. Non-medical cannabis now accounts for 11.2 percent of all spending on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis in the country where cannabis was legalized only in October 2018.
There is strong economic rationale to legalize marijuana
A report prepared by Robert Gersony for the USAID claims that the cannabis ban of 1976 backfired for the Nepali government, which might have partly fueled the Maoist revolution decades later
Nepal is losing out on a great opportunity to top up its dwindling forex reserves because of the government’s reluctance to legalize cannabis. Before its 1976 ban, “the government used to issue contracts for cannabis plantations and export the final products,” says Dr Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, who was Minister of Finance when the official ban came into effect. “We had to ban cannabis because of the pressure from the West, mainly the US. I remember they threatened us with blockage of all aid if we failed to do so. Politically as well, the West was not pleased with the king’s regime, which it called undemocratic. So the government succumbed.”
Thapa also informs that although cannabis was taxed in the country, it was never mentioned in the official budget. APEX searched the annual budget documents from 1970 to 1976, and failed to find any data on cannabis revenues.
As a reward for the cannabis ban, Thapa says, the US offered meager indirect compensations by introducing substitute crops and helping with some development work. The government, however, was reluctant to completely enforce the ban. Although it officially stopped the contracts, it was lenient with farmers and consumers. Thapa informs the ban was met with a small resistance from the Tarai, which was later stifled since it was unorganized. “Why should we give up the use of our native plant which we have been using for generations just because of foreign pressure?” was the argument from the Tarai.
The traditional use of medical marijuana in Nepal is also confirmed by the state-run Singha Durbar Vaidhyakhana Samiti, one of the oldest ayurvedic medicine manufacturers in the country. “We have traditional medicines that have been passed down from the Malla era [13th century]. Unfortunately, we have not made any cannabis medicine for the past 15-20 years due to the paucity of raw material,” says Bamshadip Sharma Kharel, the managing director of Vaidhyakhana. “Our archives show that cannabis was a key ingredient for medicines for multiple ailments like diarrhea, sexual disorders, psychiatric problems, as well as for a general medicine.”
Suited to marijuana
Nepali ayurvedic medicines infused with cannabis are exclusive and if developed, can profitably sell their patent rights abroad, Kharel argues. “While the rest of the world is only now researching cannabis for medical purposes, we’ve long known its medicinal value. If only cannabis was legalized, we could be bringing in huge revenues.”
“With the legalization of marijuana, Nepal has a strong economic opportunity to capitalize on its geographic and agricultural suitability for marijuana. In the months of October, November and December, the marijuana crops in Nepal can reach for the heavens, growing 30 feet tall,” says Jim Gierach, former Chicago prosecutor and former Acting Chair and Vice Chair of internationally recognized ‘Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’ or LEAP. “Mexico produced 21,500 metric tons of marijuana in one year (2008), according to a US Department of Justice, National Drug Intelligence Center report (2011). States in the US that have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes (33 of 50 states)—and those uses are expanding—are running out of the product. With this, the magnitude of Nepal’s economic opportunity should be clear enough.”
Gierach, who is also a drafter of the proposed comprehensive amendment to a UN drug treaty, says a responsible international drug policy that controls the production, distribution, trade and consumption of marijuana and other psychoactive substances is coming. Gierach adds that decriminalization of marijuana removes criminal punishment but does not enable legal production, export and trade that legalization offers. “The United States cannot fairly take economic advantage of medical and recreational use of marijuana and deny other nations the same prerogative,” he says.
Although the Nepali government has no official record of the cannabis economy and the ban that was enforced by the US, a 2003 report titled “Sowing the wind…History and Dynamics of the Maoist Revolt in Nepal’s Rapti Hills” prepared by Robert Gersony for the USAID claims that the cannabis ban of 1976 backfired for the Nepali government which might have partly fueled the Maoist revolution, decades later.
Rs 6bn back then
“The inhabitants of the Rapti region were prosperous before the ban, with the residents of Rukum, Rolpa, Salyan and Surkhet using the wildly abundant cannabis as a cash crop. From 1930 to 1970, the residents of the area had a stable income through cannabis. They even exported hash and charas to other parts of the world through India even during the Second World War,” the report reads. “The locals also used cannabis plants to produce ropes and traditional clothing.”
The once economically stable region collapsed in four years after the 1976 ban, reads the report, resulting in extreme poverty and out-migration. The USAID’s Rapti Development Program, which was offered as a sort of compensation for the cannabis ban, failed to provide an alternative source of income, hence turning the villages of the region into some of the poorest in the country.
How much cannabis Nepal produces is an interesting but unanswered question due to lack of proper research. A 2000 investigative report by Nepali Times shows Nepal was growing three million kg of ganja (dried marijuana plants) and charas (concentrated resin) every year with a street value of Rs 6 billion for “export” to India every year.
The Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act 1976 mandates 15 years to life imprisonment, and a fine of up to Rs 2.5 million, for those involved with narcotic drugs, and the Nepali media frequently reports of confiscation of charas, hashish and marijuana leaves. The police also destroy marijuana plants in the fields, a practice that has gained in momentum under Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa.
As cannabis and its byproducts are banned as ‘narcotics’, their underground market rate seems to depend on the agreements between the buyers and sellers. More than four decades after the cannabis ban, it is still not difficult to find a strain of the famous “Nepali” marijuana or a hash ball in any part of the country for a minimal price compared with what the country could gain if it could sell the product in the international market.
(Notwithstanding its possible contribution to the economy, legalizing marijuana may also come with its own set of problems, which is also the topic of the next article in this APEX Series)
Chronicling the ganja ban
2 History of ban
APEX Series
MARIJUANA
2 History of ban
3 Economic benefits (Mar 29)
4 Downsides (Apr 12)
5 Government stand (Apr 26)
There is no official history of marijuana in Nepal before it was banned in the 1970s, probably because it grew freely and its use was culturally accepted since time immemorial. Save for Kathmandu, the haven for the ‘flower generation’ who spread the word about Nepal’s ‘blissful cannabis’, the rest of Nepal’s cultural and traditional use of marijuana remains undocumented. “When I was young, we had plenty of marijuana growing around us and it was common to see someone smoking marijuana or giving it to cattle to cure indigestion,” says a middle-aged tea shop owner in Baluwatar, who hails from Bardiya. “But the best marijuana came from the Karnali region. The higher the altitude, the more potent it was.”
We also got in touch with a sexagenarian from Gajuri rural municipality in Dhading who has been using marijuana as a medicine. “I have been smoking marijuana from when I was 20,” says Ram Adhikari, now 65. “It has had no negative effect on my health. I smoke what grows on my property and have had no altercations with the police.” Adhikari emphasizes marijuana’s traditional medicinal use and although he is unaware of the legal aspects of the ban, he thinks the farming and trading of marijuana should be allowed.
Closed to the outside world by the autocratic Rana regime until 1951, Nepal was put on the world map after Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary scaled Everest in 1953. When Nepal started issuing tourist visas to foreigners from 1955, Kathmandu saw an influx of European and American youngsters, seeking to find peace and solitude in the mystical “Shangri-La”.
Among them were artists and icons of the era including (as rumored) the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Bob Marley, Cat Stevens and Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix even has a room and a restaurant bearing his name at the Thak Khola Lodge in Jomsom. Bestselling Brazilian author Paulo Coelho’s autobiographical novel Hippie (2018) is also based on his travel from Amsterdam to Kathmandu in 1971.
This was before the US government entered the scene. Worried by the prospect of hordes of American youths evading the draft for Vietnam to get high in Nepal, US President Richard Nixon persuaded, many say forced, Nepali Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista and King Birendra Shah to ban marijuana.
Before the marijuana ban came into effect, Coelho says Kathmandu was as popular among tourists as the Dam Square in Amsterdam and the Piccadilly Circus in London.
The American embargo stopsthe magic bus to Kathmandu
“The ban was enforced more to discourage the American youth from deserting the Vietnam War than to protect the Nepali youth,” says Keshav Acharya, an economist and former Nepal Rastra Bank officer who has written on the ban
In the 1960s, flocks of ‘flower children’ drove for thousands of miles through Europe and Asia to reach the exotic capital of the kingdom of Nepal in “magic buses” painted with flowers, peace signs and Celtic runes. Kathmandu was small back then, with concentrated human settlements around Basantapur.
The ‘hippies,’ as they were later called for their carefree nature and avant-garde living, started hanging around the Jhochhen Tole—the epicenter of the hippie culture—which earned it the colloquial ‘Freak Street’, a name it still proudly bears. Their reason for coming to Nepal was not only sacred, but also to live and experience an affordable formerly forbidden country. The fact that cannabis was legal, with government-run hash stores dotting the capital, gave them an extra reason to spend time here.
“The hippie movement was the genesis of tourism in Nepal,” says Abhi Subedi, a senior litterateur who was a university student as well as a close witness of Kathmandu’s throbbing hippie culture at the time. “The hippies came here basically for the marijuana, which was legal. It grew everywhere and we got to sell for a profit what nature was giving us for free.”
Subedi, who credits the ganja for Nepal’s encounter with Western music, literature and culture in the form of the hippies, recalls working for the Flow magazine in the late 1960s, through which he got close to several poets including Glinka, Angus MacLise, and Ira Cohen. Subedi recalls how heartbroken the tourists were when Nepal’s government criminalized marijuana and started deporting them.
“The hippies’ contribution to tourism is undeniably the most important,” Subedi says. “They came to Kathmandu and needed a place to stay. So people started renting out vacant rooms to them. They also needed to eat, so people started preparing food for them. Then came the question of negotiating how much to charge for their services.”
There is plenty of legal room to unban marijuana. But Nepal continues to classify marijuana as a narcotic and ban it
Those full moon nights
The locals started getting more organized and within the first few months of the entry of hippies into Kathmandu, restaurants, hotels and lodges started mushrooming. That was the beginning of the Nepali tourism industry. Nepali staff at various embassies joined forces, Subedi adds, and Kathmandu got its first pie store, to be followed by dispensaries of other Western delicacies. Subedi remembers attending the “full moon nights” organized by the hippies with fellow litterateur Madan Regmi and recalls a time when a foreign woman he met at a local library helped him write a paper.
“I did join them in literary and musical sessions but I did not smoke. A number of us were there just for the experience and they did not mind,” Subedi says. “All that ended with the American government’s pressure on the Nepali government to ban marijuana. But with the changing global discourse on marijuana, Nepal might as well legalize it.”
Mukti Shakya, a veteran Nepali musician, also has fond memories of the ‘hippie years’ he witnessed while growing up in the vicinity of the Basantapur Durbar Square. He recalls roaming around Jhochhen, Maru Tole, Ason and other neighboring areas the hippies frequented, and catching a mysterious whiff. Only in his early teenage years did he realize the smell was of marijuana, smoked by the foreigners and locals alike.
“The famous ‘Asharfi Pasal’ (coin store) near Maru Ganesthan was a place where the locals gathered in the evenings to sing bhajans. There were other places like that around the old Kathmandu city where people gathered, smoked marijuana and sang bhajans,” he says. The tourists started frequenting those spots and they became a center for cultural exchanges. “From what I know, the locals used to smoke marijuana way before the tourists started coming, so it was not the influence of foreigners per se.”
Jeans and books
Marijuana grew in abundance on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Shakya recalls. The paddy fields were full of weed after the paddy harvest season and the entire area around Swoyambhu was covered with marijuana. The place of the present-day Ring Road was also entirely leafy green. “The hippies created a lot of trade opportunities here. To fund their stay in Kathmandu, they sold the mini-vans they travelled in, as well as their books, artifacts and even clothes,” adds Shakya. He once bought a pair of jeans from one of the hippies.
According to Shakya, the hippie influx into Nepal did not end immediately after the ban. There were foreign travelers coming for Nepali hashish up until the early 1980s and hashish was easily available up until the 1990s. “We met a group of Hare Krishnas who were travelling with their musical instruments, in 82, I think,” Shakya recalls. “My band at the time, the Elegance, bought instruments from them at a good price. There was no other way of buying musical instruments.”
Again, ‘American pressure’ made the Nepali government ban marijuana, a popular cash crop in Kathmandu, as well as in other hilly and Tarai regions of the country.
“The ban was enforced more to discourage the American youth from deserting the Vietnam War than to protect the Nepali youth,” says Keshav Acharya, an economist and former Nepal Rastra Bank officer who has written on the ban. “The husband of Carol Laise, the American Ambassador to Nepal at the time, was himself a US ambassador to South Vietnam. The couple saw how young Americans dodged the draft and spent their time in a marijuana-induced trance in Kathmandu. They lobbied with the Nepali government for a ban on marijuana.”
Acharya says US President Richard Nixon was able to persuade the then Nepali Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista and King Birendra Shah to enforce the ban.
Dubious dates
There is also a lot of ambiguity around the actual timing of the ban, and when it came into effect. Although Nepal reportedly enacted the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act in 1976—banning the sale, cultivation and use of cannabis—it was only on 29 June, 1987 that Nepal signed on a related UN convention titled ‘Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961’.
Moreover, even the UN convention permits Nepal the right to: “the quasi-medical use of opium”; “the use of cannabis, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures of cannabis for non-medical purposes”; and, “production and manufacture of and trade in the drugs” referred to in the earlier two points.
So there is plenty of legal room to unban marijuana. But Nepal continues to classify marijuana as a narcotic and ban it. However, despite government efforts to completely ban the farming and trade of marijuana, the ‘cash crop’ that is embedded in Nepali society and culture is difficult to banish. Rural hills and the fertile Tarai still have lavish plantations of marijuana, which is being smuggled to India and other countries, as per police reports.
The media carries news of marijuana and its THC-laden byproducts being confiscated and destroyed every other day, but many believe the police are just skimming off the top. With a history of the use of marijuana for both medicinal and recreation purposes, the ban has more negative than positive effects, especially for the economy, a topic we explore in the next section of this APEX Series.
Expect more women decision makers in banking
Mega Bank Limited Nepal, which started its operation in July 2010, is now one of the most prestigious financial institutions in the country with an authorized capital of Rs 11.5 billion, issued capital of Rs 10.57 billion and paid-up capital of Rs 10.38 billion. A national level Class “A” commercial bank, Mega currently has 102 branches, 19 extension counters and 86 ATMs throughout the country in addition to 119 Branchless Banking (BLB) outlets and 2,300+ Mega Remit agents.
Also known to have a higher female to male ratio of employees than most of its competitors, Mega Bank appointed veteran banker Anupama Khunjeli as its CEO in April 2018, making her the first female CEO of a Class “A” bank in Nepal. Khunjeli, who started her career in the Grindlays Bank (now Standard Chartered) in 1991 and has been a part of Mega since its pre-inception, talks to Sunny Mahat of APEX about her almost three-decade long banking career.
As a woman, how is the experience of being in a top management position of a commercial bank?
I believe it is the same for men and women—you have to put in a lot of hard work, recognize the opportunities when they knock your door, and yes, being dedicated is the most important thing. But first, you have to enjoy your job. Give your best every day to achieve your goals and nothing will be difficult for you.
Is there a difference between how management treats its male and female employees in the banking fraternity?
That ‘difference’ is there and we cannot change it overnight. You see one female CEO after several decades of commercial banking in the country. That in itself shows where we stand in terms of opportunities to females. It has been a tough journey for women, and there sure is differentiation. We will take some time in coming out with the message that women are capable of taking up decision-making roles. I also believe that for women, their families have to be very supportive. We need as much support at home, as we support the men who go out to work.
What prompted you into taking banking as a career and what has kept you motivated for so long?
I was a commerce graduate and joined my first bank because I liked how banking touched so many lives. Everyone has financial matters—be it borrowing, lending, saving or investing. As a banker, you’re reaching out to each and every Nepali. Now that the country is striving for economic prosperity, especially when we are moving towards political stability, the job gets more interesting.
At Mega Bank, our vision has always been to reach non-banking populous across the country. When you see the economic upliftment of people with scarce resources and you know you’ve touched their lives, you get motivated to work every day. That is what kept me in banking so long.
My complete dedication to the job and my ability to bounce back from failures have kept me going.
As a dedicated banker, how do you maintain your work-life balance?
This is one question that arises every time. I believe that if you want to be successful in your career, you have to give time to the job you’re doing. And for that, your family needs to be supportive. There’s no doubt that banking requires long hours and you cannot achieve whatever you’re determined to without the family’s unending support.
My family has always been supportive and understanding, thus making me comfortable in this demanding profession. I also make sure I spend time with them whenever possible.
What suggestions would you give to prospective candidates who want to enter banking?
I know a lot of commerce graduates want to join banking because it has evolved as a prestigious career with respectable pay and job security.
But first, I would like to tell them—make sure you take a job that you would want to continue and be prepared to put in a lot of time, effort and hard work. Also make sure you enjoy working. Every morning you come to office, you should come fresh, energetic and you should be able to do what your organization is asking of you. You should be able to match your goals with your organization’s goals. Be ready to contribute to the betterment of the organization.
How has Mega Bank maintained a health number of female employees compared to other banks?
When Mega started, 60 percent of our employees were women. The ratio has changed a little due to recent mergers but are proud to have three women, including me, at the top decision making level.
Right now, whenever we try to recruit new employees, we see more female applicants. I think the men have left the country. (Laughs.) The women have stayed behind and want to join the prestigious banking fraternity. Women want to be bankers and the way we look at it, we will probably see more women decision-makers in banking in near future.
Lift the ban, lift the economy
1 Public demand
APEX Series
MARIJUANA
1 Public demand
3 Economic benefits (Mar 29)
4 Downsides (Apr 12)
5 Government stand (Apr 26)
Till the 1970s, the farming and consumption of marijuana was legal in Nepal. Marijuana or Cannabis sativa is an easy-to-cultivate, naturally-growing weed with ‘unnatural’ medicinal properties, as researchers and scientists are finding out. True to its property, until just over a decade ago, it grew in abundance on the fertile outskirts of Kathmandu, even right next to the Ring Road, before the city’s expansion left it without much space. Even today, one can catch a whiff of the ganja while walking through tourist areas. Come Shivaratri, the day of Lord Shiva, the ‘holy’ ganja becomes unofficially legal and you would definitely know at least one person who smokes or consumes it that day. The medicinal value of marijuana is immense. The Harvard Medical School website reports the many benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), a cannabis component, including “relieving insomnia, anxiety, spasticity, and pain to treating potentially life-threatening conditions such as epilepsy”. It goes on to note how “one particular form of childhood epilepsy called Dravet syndrome is almost impossible to control, but responds dramatically to a CBD-dominant strain of marijuana called Charlotte’s Web.”
Similarly, other medical websites list a number of other ailments cannabis could relieve: cancer, chronic pain, Crohn’s Disease, depression, glaucoma, Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Parkinson’s.
Moreover, Nepal is an import-dependent country which relies on its neighbors for even the most basic items. Investing in the low-cost, high-yield crop can help narrow the budget deficit. Normally, it takes about three to four months to grow a cannabis plant but with proper tools, the produce can be harvested in as little as eight weeks. Cannabis byproducts include oil, medicines, fabric, paper and edibles, which can all be profitably traded.
Nepal enacted the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act in 1976, under tremendous pressure from the US. (For one, the Americans thought their youth were getting high in Kathmandu instead of serving in Vietnam, and started lobbying for its ban.) The sale, cultivation and use of cannabis was banned. Nature’s gift to Nepalis was deemed illegal and what was historically legal and normal became immoral over time. (This APEX Series will also include an extensive article on the history of cannabis use in Nepal). The Hippie Trail, which brought the first commercial western tourists to Nepal, was suppressed under the US directive. With the forceful deportation of the ‘hippies’, as well as a total ban on the sale and consumption of hashish and marijuana, Nepal lost the rights to an ancient and profitable cash crop.
A case for legal cannabis
The Western world has started decriminalizing and legalizing the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana. As it does so, Nepali authorities are at a loss to explain its criminalization, or whether to continue with a ban dating back almost 50 years. Yet the government has been unable to strictly enforce the ban as cultivation and use of marijuana is still common both in urban and rural regions. Negatively publicized as a contraband product all these years, marijuana’s use for any purpose became strictly taboo, with people reluctant to even mention its name, let alone accept its beneficial properties. This was until Birodh Khatiwada, a federal lawmaker from the ruling Nepal Communist Party, spoke in the House of Representatives in favor of lifting the marijuana ban. While developed countries like the US, Canada and Thailand are increasingly using cannabis as an income source, Khatiwada said, people in Nepal are barred from producing it. He gave the example of the Singha Durbar-based Vaidyakhana—the state-run manufacturer of Aayurvedic and herbal medicines—which is having to import marijuana from abroad even as the state destroys the good stuff produced in Nepal.
Khatiwada’s House presentation has prompted other prominent figures to also come out in support of lifting the ban. APEX had in the past tried to raise this issue on the basis of public opinion, but everyone it approached wanted to remain anonymous. Not so after Khatiwada’s remarks. People are now ‘coming out’ on its benefits and are already calculating how the country can benefit from the cash crop. Most of APEX’s contacts this time emphasized medicinal and commercial use of marijuana, rather than reinforce the common perception that it is used only for “smoking and getting high”.
“It is high time we amended laws that do us more harm than good,” Khatiwada told APEX. “The US forced us to sign the Act. Now more than 30 of its states have legalized marijuana. So why should Nepal still criminalize it?”
In 2017, combined marijuana sales in the US state of Colorado exceeded $1.5 billion
Going global
As marijuana is a lot easier to cultivate than other crops and its use is globalizing, Khatiwada explains, lifting the ban will create opportunities for Nepali farmers and traders alike. He recalls a time during his childhood when cannabis was used as medicine for diarrhea and other stomach ailments for both humans and livestock. “Cannabis grows freely in all regions of Nepal, especially remote hilly areas where growing anything else is difficult. Cannabis grown in Nepal is considered top quality and we could export huge amounts of it legally,” Khatiwada says.
Although critics initially accused him of promoting “drug abuse”, Khatiwada says the support he has received from fellow lawmakers and politicians as well as the general people from his constituency has by and large been positive. “Many lawmakers thanked me for bringing up the issue. Many advocacy organizations working for the legalization of cannabis in Nepal are willing to work with me on further research,” he says.
Nepal is an import-dependent country which relies on its neighbors for even the most basic items. Investing in the low-cost, high-yield crop can help narrow the budget deficit. Normally, it takes about three to four months to grow a cannabis plant but with proper tools, the produce can be harvested in as little as eight weeks. Cannabis byproducts include oil, medicines, fabric, paper and edibles. The countries that have legalized its production and sale report a significant yearly income from taxes. In the US, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq both list cannabis companies and “cannabis stocks” are predicted to be the highest-yielding future investments.
Colorado rapids
In 2014, the year marijuana sales were legalized in the US state of Colorado, total annual recreational sales amounted to $303 million, while medical sales totaled $380 million. By 2017, recreational sales had grown to almost $1.1 billion, and medical sales were almost $417 million. In other words, in 2017, combined marijuana sales in Colorado exceeded $1.5 billion.
In Nepal there has been no official study of cannabis production and trade. But economists predict that the high-yield, low-investment plantation will be an economic boon for the country. “When I was a junior officer at the Nepal Rastra Bank back in the 1990s, I had written in my internal reports that the farming of cannabis should be made legal,” says economist Keshav Acharya. “I am still of the opinion that economic farming should be made legal. We can bring in millions of dollars from international pharmaceutical companies by decriminalizing and regulating cannabis production.”
“The world is cashing in on the legalization of marijuana but Nepal, a country famous across the globe for the quality of its crops, is still confused about the use and abuse of something,” says Ranjan Ojha, founder of the Nepal School of Entrepreneurship. “When we say marijuana should be legalized, we don’t mean everyone should be smoking it. We have alcohol manufacturers here too, but does everyone drink alcohol?”
Ojha says that as agriculture and tourism are the twin engines of Nepal’s economy, cannabis farming can help both. As an entrepreneur, he sees more opportunities than threats in legalizing marijuana. “We have a history of tourists coming to Nepal for cannabis and if we legalize and regulate its sale, we will have something more to offer them. Rather than blindly following an Act that tied us up, we can be more progressive and introduce cultural entrepreneurship and an experience economy in the country.”
Dr Bipesh Acharya, a pathologist and the director of the Purbanchal Hospital, says the medicinal value of cannabis has been studied by international researchers and it is now known to help with, among other ailments, chronic pain, arthritis, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. “But despite knowing the medicinal value, Nepali doctors have been unable to prescribe medicines with cannabis.”
“Rice is used to make beer, and apple is used to make brandy but we don’t ban them,” Acharya says. “For a nation that wants to graduate from an underdeveloped to a developing country, progressive decisions need to be made to keep up with developed countries”.
