Cannabis Research Project

Why is in news? Jammu to pioneer India's first Cannabis Medicine Project

‘Cannabis Research Project’ of CSIR-IIIM Jammu is a first of its kind in India initiated under the leadership of Prime Minister, in Private Public Partnership with a Canadian firm, which has a great potential to put substance of abuse for the good of mankind especially for patients suffering from neuropathies, cancer and epilepsy.

This project of CSIR-IIIM is also important from the perspective of Atma- Nirbhar Bharat as after getting all the approvals, it will be able to produce export quality drugs meant for different kinds of neuropathies, diabetic pains etc.

J&K and Punjab are affected by drug abuse, this kind of project will spread awareness that this substance of abuse has diverse medicinal uses especially for the patients suffering from malignancies and other diseases.

The signing of scientific agreement between CSIR-IIIM and IndusScan was historic not only for J&K but for whole of India as it has the potential to produce those kinds of medicines which have to be exported from foreign countries.

CSIR-IIIM is the oldest scientific research institute in India with the history of discovering mint way back in 1960s, the centre of purple revolution and now the Cannabis Research Project of CSIR-IIIM is going to make it more prestigious in terms of scientific research in India.

Cannabis is a wonder plant from which FDA has approved the drugs such as Marilnol/nabilone and Cesamet for treatment of nausea and vomiting, Sativex for neuropathic pain and spasticity, Epidiolex, Cannabidiol for epilepsy and being used elsewhere in countries.

In J&K, the license was granted to CSIR-IIIM, Jammu for research and protected cultivation and upon permission of GMP manufacturing, the rest of pre-clinical and clinical studies would be completed.

The scientists of the institute are working in different directions to provide the end-to-end technology for Cannabis cultivation, drug discovery with emphasis on disease conditions like pain management in cancer and epilepsy.

Cannabis Cultivation:

Cannabis refers to a group of three plants with psychoactive properties, known as Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica, and Cannabis ruderalis.

Cannabis is made up of more than 120 components, which are known as cannabinoids but experts have a pretty good understanding of two of them, known as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

The Mexican term ‘marijuana’ is frequently used in referring to cannabis leaves or other crude plant material in many countries.

The unpollinated female plants are called hashish. Cannabis oil (hashish oil) is a concentrate of cannabinoids obtained by solvent extraction of the crude plant material or of the resin.

CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine is the pioneer in the Cannabis research and obtained the first license for cultivation in the country.

In India farming of cannabis has been legalised in Uttarakhand, and controlled cultivation of cannabis is also being done in some districts of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Legal Provisions in India:

The central law that deals with cannabis (weed or marijuana) in India is the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, of 1985.

The NDPS Act prohibits the sale and production of cannabis resin and flowers, but the use of leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant is permitted

The states have the power to regulate and form the state rules for it.