Cannabis in India: Delhi, Mumbai high on pot consumption, says report

After the suicide of actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June, several friends of the actor have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Board (NCB) which claims it has busted a ring of suppliers of marijuana and cannabis, from all over India.
 

In India, cannabis is used as (a) bhang, which is legally available in many states and (b) ganja and charas, which are illegal according to the international drug conventions and the Indian law (the NDPS Act, 1985). About 2.8 per cent of Indians aged 10-75 years (3.1 crore individuals) are current users of any cannabis product. 

 

States with higher-than-national prevalence of cannabis use are UP, Punjab, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh and Delhi. One in 16 users of bhang was dependent on cannabis, against one in seven users of ganja/charas. Nationally, 0.66 per cent people aged 10-75 years need help with their cannabis use (i.e. they use it in a harmful pattern). This proportion is much higher in Sikkim (2.9 per cent) and Punjab (2.2 per cent).
 

In 2019 a Germany-based organisation called SEEDO, which provides equipment to raise cannabis plants through hydroponics, reported in a worldwide survey of prices and consumption of cannabis during 2018, that New Delhi had the third largest consumption of cannabis. New York and Karachi were at first and second place. Mumbai was the sixth. Delhi consumed 38.6 tonne of cannabis in 2018 and Mumbai 32 tonne. The drug was cheaper in India: $4.38 a gram in Delhi and $4.32 in Mumbai. In Tokyo, it costs $29.6 per gram.