BJD's Sathpathy asks parliament to legalise marijuana use to reduce alcohol abuse

Speaking in parliament, Tathagata Satpathy, the BJD's chief whip in the Lok Sabha called for the legalisation of cannabis consumption on Thursday. He claimed that banning cannabis consumption was responsible for the rise in alcoholism, reports Indian Express. . Evoking Lord Shiva he said: "In the villages of my constituency, old people, venerable people used to smoke marijuana… natural marijuana. Today, by imposing ban on natural substances, which people have been using for ages, from the time of Lord Shiva, we have actually forced a lot of these people to move on to alcohol."

“Bhang was a very common intoxicant in the holy city of Puri. You could get it on the roadside. It was legally available there. It is available in Varanasi also. You have made it illegal and it has been replaced by alcohol.”  Satpathy also linked alcohol consumption to rising crime rate. In the past, he won a lot young fans by talking about legalising marijuana consumption, and described the ban as elitist and argued for its legalisation.  

He also questioned the efficacy of banning alcohol. He asked: “Have bans actually helped bring down alcohol consumption? The brightest example is the Gujarat model. The state has been dry since the 1960s, but alcohol is available in every nook and corner of the state… It is the duty of the Centre to tell states not to ban alcohol."