Thread by @RohitashwT

There is a reason why shastra has called cannabis as Vijaya ( विजया) butti.

Health benefits and socio-economics of cannabis cultivation and consumption makes this plant truly Vijaya.

Plenty of research is all ready available in public domain!

One who conquers all - विजया!

A mythological folk tale :
It is said that Bhagwati Parvati did extremely intense tapasya of Bhagwan Shiv.

Present times Parvati Valley of Kullu district is said to be the place where Maa did her tapasya.

Maa conducted an gupt tantrik anusthan along with fasting.

Fasting ritual was so intense that Maa Parvati was supposed to slowly slowly give up eating and drinking completely.

She started off with fruits diet only falahar.

Then she proceeded to parna-ahar ( diet of leaves only )

Then last stage of fasting required maa parvati to even give up consumption of leaves and become Aparana ( one who has given up the last leave as well)

She consumed the last leaf and then continued with the tantra anushthan.

Finally after few tests, lord shiva appeared to her in human form which she desired as her husband.

Lord Shiva's taking human form which Maa desired is celebrated as Shiv Prakototsav or Maha Shivratri.

Maha Shivratri is not birth but prakat-utsav of Lord shiva.

Now let's talk about the anusthan and the fasting ritual which Maa conducted.

The anusthan is from Shakt and Shaiv sampradaya involving all ten mahavidya of Kali and Shree karm.

The fasting ritual has hint of vaishanav tantra in it as well.

The second last leaf which Maa consumed was Jaya (जया).

The last leaf which Maa consumed, before stepping into deep state of occult and dhayan was Vijaya (विजया) or leaf of Cannabis Indica plant.

Possibly folk saying of hills that Shiva loves cannabis started here.

A massive Geo-Political propaganda in the name of 'war on drugs' was orchestrated by US President

Indira Gandhi didn't buckle under US pressure of criminalizing cannabis without any scientific rationale.

Media covered the 'hippy movement' to suit the prpoganda.

Media led propoganda of 1970s and 1980s, quickly made cannabis consumption a taboo in the mind set of urban India population.

Later, Rajeev Gandhi criminalized the cannabis consumption.

This disrupted the millennium old eco-eystem of cannabis cultivation in sub continent.

As cannabis is extensively used in ayurveda, the this policy change was a major blow on the health-eco system of India.

Few other policy changes, suiting big pharma and alcohol cartels ensured that ayurveda practice started to struggle in India.

With criminalization of Cannabis, hemp-farming collapsed.

Textiles took a ecological hit!

Loss of hemp farming had a cascading butterfly impact on entire agriculture eco-system.

In absence of aurveda and disturbed agricultural cycles our health started to decline.

Big Pharma jumped into this opportunity.

India is the biggest health-care market.

Cannabis criminalization directly and indirectly helped big Pharma and took us away from natural health practices of ayurveda.

Criminalization of cannabis, rapid urbanization, human need for recreation aided by propoganda led by bollywood gave birth to opening up sudden expansion of alcohol market of India.

International cartels jumped in. Many complex web of pharam-alcohol nexus were created.

Sudden and exponential increase in alcohol consumption of the country lead to sudden change of dietary habits.

One of the reasons for exponential rise in meat-consumption of India is because of this unfortunate sequences of events.

Rising size of Meat industry requires larger livestock.

It resulted in exponential rise of corn cultivation as feed of rising meat industry.

More corn means more urea and carbon footprints.

Irrational use of canals, urea etc disturbed the agro cycles and patterns more.

We become dependent on western medicines for our health completely.

Eating habits started to change due to rising alcoholism, urbanization and disturbed agricultural patterns.

Our health kept going down and everytime we ran to 'Big Pharma' for help as ayurveda was long gone!

Rising alcoholism and bad dietary habits started to show impact on our socio-economic fabric.

Physiological health started to take a toll with nutrient deficiency in masses.

Depression or anxiety became a common thing!

All this kept taking us closer to alcohol and big pharma. This becomes a vicious cycle.

We kept going away from natural-pathy and auryveda.

These unfortunate sequence of distarous events happened because someone decided to ban Cannabis without any SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE!

Goverment must revive hemp/cannabis farming, medicinal use and recreational usage.

Let's not mess up with enviroment and ecology any more.

We must revert to ancient vedic system where cultivation and usage of cannabis was integral part of social and political order.

It will help us overcome the menace of rising alcoholism and associated health and social issues.

Cannabis can help revive auyrveda.

Eventually, in 10-15 years, cannabis and hemp cultivation can start fixing up eco-logical imbalance thereby reducing our carbon footprints.

I am sure many of us can recollect how 'Bhaang Theka' used to be a common site in North India untill recently.