Promotion and legalization of country liquor and marijuana
- Part 3 -

Thangniang Lunzosang Vaiphei *

Manipur Excise Department disposing off seized Country Made Liquor in Jan 2012

The dreadful Drugs policy : The most crucial part of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 19985 was the execution of capital punishment as a means to stop drug trafficking or any other liable reason. "The Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act is a powerful double-edged weapon which is being misused to put innocent individuals behind the bars with no hope of bail, and with the added stigma of being an illegal drug peddler" (Mukul, 1997) Many people were trapped into this law and faced trial of capital punishment and lost their life. "An official, spokesperson of the ministry of finance informs in Delhi that a total of .13, 312 persons were arrested in 1995 under the NDPS Act in all over the country" (Mukul, 1997).

Logically, doing business with narcotics products or drugs is not a cruel crime which does not seek the capital punishment. It very awful in a large democratic country like India, do not have any humanitarian ground for such people.

Some of those people may belong to lower class society, doing such things in order to survive in this world. Last year the Narcotic Drugs law's death penalty was imposed for the first time in India on Paramjit Singh. He was a person, who was put into such situation just for drug trafficking.

Still many of such people are yet to be put into death penalty. Contrastingly, a terrorist who had killed so many civilians in Mumbai intentionally is still alive and enjoying the fullest in a special prison.

Such law is being used and executed illogically. People who are engaged in their traditional practices just like marijuana a very traditional practices are being criminalized and dreadful, except in the case of in-humanitarian act. A place like north east, which is mostly dominated by a tribal society are common to such crisis.

The people do such works as they do not have any alternative things to do. They have to earn their income anyhow in order to feed the family as well as their survival source. In conflict with the Law, "the NDPS Act prohibits cultivation, production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transport, import, export, use and consumption of narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances, except for medical and scientific reasons, under license" (Grover, Lines, 2012).

As they initiate the work necessities, people encountered with such law, do not let them move on and sometime put behind the bar and at some point lost their life when they faced the stringent law

The Indian Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) 1985 is internationally denounced and sought to repeal its law. The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has declared that, drug trafficking is not the most serious crime under International Law. In the year 1997, the UNHRC had sought the Indian government to "lessen the number of offences carrying the death penalty the most serious crimes, with a view to its ultimate abolition" (Grover, Lines, 2012). In addition to these, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has sought the Indian Government to abolish the death penalty for drug related offences. But unexpectedly for the largest democracy country, the demand to protect the life of the people from such issues was put down and ignored.

Rural Development path- a vision : The government must act with a civilized manner, putting more concern into the threats to culture and tradition. More importantly the unique tribal culture from the rest of the society such as way of living, food habits and so on. Not only the tribal, there are also number of community in the caste society having different culture on various aspects.

As in the case of alcohol, Indian government is not concerned about promoting or uplifting on the quality of country liquor produced by the lower section of the society. The government does impose excise taxes on them but the trader has never received any consideration for promotion from the government. "Alcohol being a major source of tax revenue, many states are reluctant to reduce the dependence on this source of revenue for their resource mobilisation" (Abraham, 1995). The state gives full permit to the foreign made liquor for sale and consumption in India by putting high excise taxes, moreover the state allowed the foreign liquor company to produce its liquor what we called Indian made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the country (Sharma, Tripathi, Pelto, 2010). It has been observed and studied that, the state revenue mostly comes from the excise taxes on Alcohol in India. Most of the state revenue emerged from taxing alcohol. It became a significant contributor to the government revenues.

The state imposed its policies and laws to cut taxes from the liquor company on its products (Mahal, 2000). The Indian government must take up the issue of country liquor products in order to safeguard the livelihood practices of the lower section of the society. They mostly faced problems related to quality and consequences of law which act as a barrier for them. If the state promotes the country liquor which are made from natural plants and standardises the quality of the products by developing and applying technology which will give a better quality it will in turn act as a mechanism to reduce the stereotype mind set of the people on the lower section of society and will also ensure the life of the people economically. The quality of country liquor can be standardised by promoting through innovative technology which will mechanise the country liquor into a better liquor attracting consumers in a healthy manner.

During the 19th century, the Russian made Vodka was made promoted by the state and standardized the products by using different mechanism and the state introduce monopoly on the business of Vodka. It was a home consumption where all the Russians drinks were culturally produced. It is made up white flour and mainly developed by the common men before the state took over the culture into standardizing the quality. Now, it has become a popular drink in the worldwide and known by everyone in the world (Christian, 1994). Likewise in the case of Vodka, Indian Country liquor can be developed into that sphere by investing capital and engaging entrepreneurs to develop it.

A similar case could be study from countries like Japan, China, and Korea in promoting their country liquor in order to sustain their economy. As there have been many accounts of marijuana used in many parts of the country, marijuana plant can still be used as it is. Morley Charles (2001) in his paper "Drug Trade in Himachal Pradesh" highlights about the effective use of Cannabis (Marijuana). "Certain food items were also made from cannabis, for example during harvest time a favourite dish was parched Indian bread made of corn or wheat mixed with hemp seeds. The cannabis plant was also used to manufacture fibrous products; the stem was soaked in water and fibre removed from it. Shoes, bags, ropes and nets were made locally". By having such tradition, states like Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal ensure growth of socio-economic status, as there is an abundance of cannabis found in the region.

Cannabis is grown in many parts of country and depending on the geographical altitude. Many states like in north east are also rich in growing cannabis. But, the way people use and promote it is different. Here the objective is not to promote and legalize it for harmful narcotics drugs, it aims to make the people aware and the state to look into the regional growth by promoting the marijuana plant as a cottage industry, producing local craft, cloths, shoes, fibres, ropes, etc. that could generate an income source for their livelihood.

The number of cottage industries must be increased by investing capital to starts up their own enterprise and promoting to produce innovative products, so that the number of crimes related to Narcotic drugs will reduce simultaneously. In fact the huge population involved in drugs related activities has to be brought in to this platform only through such measures.

The state must also promote in improving the quality of the land for cultivating marijuana and conducting research to ensure the productivity of the marijuana in those areas, as there are very less chances of employment and livelihood opportunities from any other source to sustain the needs of the people, growing marijuana is well common in those altitude regions and the need of promoting into cottage industry is needed for manufacturing local products from marijuana plant.

Conclusion: The state has a very crucial role in dealing with Alcohol and Drugs. The problem of the state and society on such cases cannot be resolved by countering them. There is a need to understand the gap between the people and the policy imposed on them. The state must repeal those laws which are affecting the life of the people and must include every one interest and ensure their social security. The tag or social stigma that has been given by the state as well as society has to be removes in order to give those people who are engaged in such activities a healthy environment within the society. By promoting and legalizing, the sphere of country liquor and marijuana will shape the future better, which will ensure the people in socioeconomic aspects.

One's community's culture and tradition cannot be ignored by the state. If a nation wants to develop in every aspect, the state must consider the cultural reality of its nation by involving the peoples' interest and their tradition. Development which gives important to cultural realities will surely prosper and sustain the social, economic and political aspects of the country.

Concluded ...