[420 Girl]

Which law requires medicine manufacturers to have license to sell Bhang-laced medicines? This is the question that a case in the Bombay High Court has posed.

Bhang is made from a variety of cannabis --Indian hemp -- plant, and it is consumed all over India on days such as Holi and Shivratri.

But though derived from cannabis, it does not come under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

In a writ petition filed before the Bombay High Court, Moolchand Gupta and others have complained that they are being harassed by the police for manufacturing/selling Bhang-containing Ayurvedic medicines without a license.

"Our contention is that under the NDPS act, such a license for Bhang-laced medicines is not needed," said their lawyer, Veena Thadani.

Petitioners manufacture two Ayurvedic preparations, which contain 2 to 5 per cent of Bhang.

Thadani told the division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi last week that earlier Bhang and Ganja Rules under the Bombay Prohibition Act gave excise department power to issue license.

"But those rules were repealed when NDPS act came into existence. NDPS now provides for Ganja, but Bhang is specifically excluded under it," she said.

At present there is no law which controls use of bhang in medicines, she said.

The petitioners contend that they have been making the medicines for 15 years.

In 2007, the High Court admitted the petition, and gave an interim order that petitioners should sell their products only through medical shops.

Now the case has come up for final hearing. At the hearing last week, state government took the stand that license was required under NDPS act.

But Thadani argued that Bhang was not covered by the definition of nacotic substances.

The government, however, took the stand that under 'Medicinal and Toilet Preparations Act', a license was needed for selling Bhang-laced medicines.

The next hearing of the case is on March 18.

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