• Union Minister Jitendra Singh said Jammu is going to pioneer India’s first cannabis medicine project.

• Singh visited Cannabis Cultivation Farm of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) at Chatha near Jammu.

• The project undertaken by the CSIR-IIIM will produce export quality medicines meant for different kinds of neuropathies and diabetic pains.

• Last month, CSIR-IIIM and IndusScan, a Canada based company, signed a major scientific agreement on cannabis research.

What is cannabis?

• Cannabis is a generic term used to denote the several psychoactive preparations of the plant Cannabis sativa. The major psychoactive constituent in cannabis is ∆-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Compounds which are structurally similar to THC are referred to as cannabinoids. 

• In addition, a number of recently identified compounds that differ structurally from cannabinoids nevertheless share many of their pharmacological properties. 

• The Mexican term ‘marijuana’ is frequently used in referring to cannabis leaves or other crude plant material in many countries. 

• The unpollinated female plants are called hashish. Cannabis oil (hashish oil) is a concentrate of cannabinoids obtained by solvent extraction of the crude plant material or of the resin.

• Cannabis is by far the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused illicit drug. Half of all drug seizures worldwide are cannabis seizures. 

• The geographical spread of those seizures is also global, covering practically every country of the world. 

• About 147 million people, 2.5 per cent of the world population, consume cannabis (annual prevalence).

Cannabis Research Project

• The ‘Cannabis Research Project’ of CSIR-IIIM Jammu is a first-of-its-kind in the country in public-private partnership with a Canadian firm.

• It has a great potential to put substance of abuse for the good of mankind,  especially for patients suffering from neuropathies, cancer and epilepsy.             

• This project of CSIR-IIIM is also important from the perspective of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. After getting all the approvals, it will be able to produce export quality drugs meant for different kinds of neuropathies and diabetic pains.

• Under a tripartite agreement of CSIR with Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), CSIR-IIIM has completed the exploratory research on cannabis after licence for cultivation of cannabis for scientific purpose was granted by the J&K government. 

• The scientists of the institute are working in different directions to provide the end-to-end technology for cannabis cultivation, drug discovery with emphasis on disease conditions like pain management in cancer and epilepsy.

• For further pre-clinical regulatory studies related to management of cancer pain and epilepsy, it is very important to carry out Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) for pre-clinical and clinical studies which are mandatory requirements of the discovery of newer therapeutic drugs.

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