India’s history of cannabis use encourages scientists to explore new ways of using it as a legal painkiller

There is less than half a hectare of land in the whole of India where the cannabis plant can grow legally. But that one acre in Jammu, in the country’s north, marks a new phase in its relationship with cannabis – a willingness to explore its potential to provide relief to sick Indians after decades of treating it as a taboo.

The land belongs to a government-owned lab called the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM), where scientists are growing the cannabis, and a sense of excited optimism prevails among the team. The institute is the first body to get a research licence from the government to grow cannabis to find out what medical use it offers for the treatment of severe pain, cancer, epilepsy, sickle cell anaemia, neurological disorders and mental health problems.

Since getting the licence a year ago, scientists have identified and isolated several compounds, which have been tested on animals with “exciting” results. In a few months’ time, once these pre-clinical trials are over, the Institute will extract cannabidiol and produce oil or capsules which will be given to the Tata Memorial Centre cancer hospital in Mumbai so that it can start India’s first human clinical trials on cancer patients.

“The value of cannabis has been a part of the traditional ayurvedic system of medicine in India for 2,000 years, so we already have a body of scientific and traditional knowledge about it. But this research is about extending our understanding and about scaling it up to make it available to millions,” says Dr Abdul Rahim, head of planning and business development at the Institute.

For Rahim, the plant evokes wonder. “It is much, much more powerful than morphine. It can help in neurological disorders, in cancer, in arresting Alzheimer’s and a whole range of diseases. We can’t afford to delay,” he says.