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Great Legislation India Movement Trust has filed a petition through Advocates Avinash K Sharma and Ashutosh Nagar before the Delhi High Court demanding decriminalization of usage of cannabis in India. The trust has challenged various provisions of, Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances act 1985 and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Rule 1985, which criminalize cannabis and industrial hemp usage in India.
The petitioner professes to be an enlisted trust which has been "at the cutting edge" of the development to decriminalize the utilization of cannabis and bring issues to light concerning its restorative, mechanical, environmental,economic and different advantages.
The petitioner does not seek to completely de-regulate the use of cannabis. However, they opined that any restriction ought to be steady with the necessity of “natural justice.” The petitioners feel that it is unreasonable to treat cannabis as harmful like other drugs.
Further, the petitioners held that the Parliament had not taken into account several benefits of cannabis while framing the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. It was opined by the advocates appearing for the petitioners that various sections of the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 violate Articles 14, 15, 19, 25 and 29 of the Indian constitution.
The petitioners produced several scientific research papers and reports to support their claims of the medical advantages and industrial applications of the cannabis plant. Some excerpts of the documents are given below:
“...medicinal use of Cannabis can help to reduce the acute health crisis, which the country is currently facing.. (It) is useful in prevention of Cancer and brings relief to the patients who are affected with HIV. The level of relief, which this plant can bring, would become evident from the fact that on an average eight lakh people die from cancer every year. Further, about 82,000 cases of HIV infection are reported every year.”
"Industrial hemp (Cannabis) is an agricultural commodity that is cultivated for use in the production of a wide range of products, including fibreboards and furniture, foods and beverages, cosmetics and personal care products, nutritional supplements, fabrics and textiles, yarns and spun fibres, paper, construction and insulation materials, bio-plastics, bio-fuels, grapheme technology and other manufactured goods. Had there been no prohibition on the cultivation of industrial cannabis the farmers can immensely benefit from the cultivation of Cannabis."
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