Abstract
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act), constitutes the cornerstone of India’s drug control regime. While enacted to curb illicit trafficking and substance abuse, its application to cannabis has generated sustained legal and policy debate. Critics argue that the Act’s prohibitionist framework fails to account for cannabis’s historical, medicinal, industrial, and cultural significance in India, resulting in disproportionate criminalisation, barriers to scientific research, and social inequities. Recently, civil society initiatives such as the Great Legalisation Movement India (GLM India) have advocated for decriminalisation and regulated legalisation, emphasising therapeutic potential, environmental sustainability, and economic opportunity. This article critically examines the legal treatment of cannabis under the NDPS Act, analyses the limitations of the existing prohibitionist approach, evaluates arguments for reform and the risk and counter arguments, and proposes a phased regulatory framework for decriminalisation and controlled legalisation consistent with constitutional principles, public health objectives, and international obligations.
Keywords: Cannabis decriminalisation in India, NDPS Act, cannabis and legal reforms, global standards on cannabis decriminalisation.
- Introduction
India’s drug control policy has been shaped by a combination of international treaty obligations, domestic legislative choices, and public health considerations. The enactment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 marked a decisive shift towards a stringent prohibitionist framework governing narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. The Act criminalises a broad range of activities, including the cultivation, production, possession, sale, transport, and consumption of specified substances, subject to limited exceptions for medical and scientific purposes.1
Cannabis occupies a distinctive and contested position within this framework. While the NDPS Act classifies certain forms of cannabis—namely charas and ganja—as prohibited substances, it expressly excludes seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the flowering or fruiting tops.2 Despite this partial distinction, unlicensed possession and consumption of proscribed cannabis parts remain criminal offences, attracting penal sanctions. This legal treatment represents a significant departure from India’s historical engagement with cannabis, which has traditionally featured in indigenous systems of medicine, religious practices, and cultural life.
The continued criminalisation of cannabis has increasingly been questioned on grounds of proportionality, public health efficacy, and social justice. Legal scholars and activists argue that the NDPS Act fails to adequately differentiate cannabis from higher-risk narcotic substances, leading to the criminalisation of personal users, obstruction of medical research, and disproportionate impact on marginalised communities. In this context, civil society movements such as the Great Legalisation Movement India (GLM India), founded by Viki Vaurora, have emerged to challenge the prevailing legal regime and to advocate for decriminalisation and regulated legalisation of cannabis, citing its medicinal, industrial, environmental, and cultural value.3
Against this backdrop, this paper examines the statutory framework governing cannabis under the NDPS Act, critiques the existing prohibitionist approach, analyses arguments supporting reform as well as countervailing concerns, and proposes a phased, evidence-based model for decriminalisation and regulation within the Indian legal system.