Cannabis is an illegal narcotic in most parts of the world; even India. It's more deadly form is called marijuana
Cannabis is an illegal narcotic in most parts of the world; even India. It's more deadly form is called marijuana.
From it comes some of the most lethal addictive organic drugs that ruled the party circuit until the arrival of even more lethal, even more potent, even more addictive chemical drugs. 
But still, it is amazing to see Indian television soap operas directed at women showing bhang being prepared from leaves of the cannabis plant and consumed by the family during Holi. We have Bollywood songs where heroes and heroines run around trees consuming bhang and singing 'Jai Jai Shiv Shankar' and then we have the famous 'Dum Maro Dum' with a very young and beautiful Zeenat Aman surrounded by hippies smoking pot, hoping it will destroy all sorrow. No one is upset or outraged. An acknowledgment that cannabis is sacred in India ufffd it is sold in the temple markets of Varanasi, Puri and Nathdvara. Every sadhu smokes this potent drug.
Shiva, the hermit, smokes cannabis. He is describedu00a0 as always being on a high. There are miniature paintings showing Parvati making bhang for her husband. She berates him for always being in a hemp trance and never doing household chores. Krishna's elder brother, Balram, is known for his fondness for bhang. Bhang drinking is a common part of rituals in Vaishnav temples. It is considered a coolant to calm the short-tempered Shiva and Balaram.
Not just cannabis, many stimulants and depressants, including alcohol are part of sacred and social traditions all over the world. Vedic priests kept referring to soma which enabled the mind to take flight. Homer's Odyssey refers to lotus-eaters, who lie around all day doing nothing. Across Arabia and Africa, chewing narcotic leaves known as khat is a part of tradition. Ancient Egyptians called it divine food. Betel nut is an alkaloid that gives a chemical high when chewed and is famously consumed in every household in South Asia in the form of paan. In many tribes, shamans have used chemicals to transport themselves to the world of spirits. Alcohol is served to Kala-Bhairav and other fierce deities. Wine-drinking is a sacrament in Christianity.
In modern times, most of these have been deemed as substance abuse agents and are banned in different capacities in different parts of the world. We want to create a world where no one takes any chemical stimulant. We want to force people to be good. And so now, people who smoke cigarettes which contain tobacco have to stand outside buildings and smoke like criminals. Tobacco is deemed evil because it causes cancer. Even fatty and starchy food is being slowly treated as evil, as they can cause diseases. The worst sin of the 21st century is to eat a high-calorie meal.
This use of law to control human behaviour did not exist in ancient times. There was a tendency to trust human will, human intelligence and the ability to self-regulate. Modern society seems to have lost faith in human beings. Modern society does not want to allow humans to take responsibility for their own lives. It, therefore, uses laws to control human behaviour and domesticate them into perfection. Invariably, it fails. Prohibition simply spawns a booming black market. And I realise this when I hear ufffd much to my disquiet ufffd well-educated and affluent boys and girls describing how they snort lines of cocaine in the toilet cubicles and how it makes them feel 'cool and dangerous'.
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Devdutt Pattanaik is Chief Belief Officer of the Future Group, and can be reached at devdutt@devdutt.com.
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't necessarily represent those of the paper
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