Cannabis

India

medicines

Viki Varoura

Karnataka

A Bangalore-based centre is in high demand for offering medical marijuana-based products.can do a lot more than give you a high. On February 1, Vedi Wellness Centre —’s first medical cannabis clinic — opened its doors and has since seen more than a 100 calls and drop-ins. The store, which offers Ayurvedic and herbal products, mostly receives enquiries for cannabis-based— seven in all. These oils and tablets can be bought with a prescription, only after consultation with its doctors who are available online and at the clinic.“Most people who reach out to us already know or have done their research about medical cannabis,” a clinic representative says. When Mirror visited the clinic, a 40-something man was looking for cannabis oil to provide relief to his wife who’s suffering from brain cancer.This “latent demand” prompted Odisha-based HempCann Solutions to take its online business of plant-based products offline as well. In the last two years, they claim to have sold over 30,000 units of cannabis medicines to more than 5,000 patients in India. These are people in the age group of 30 to 55 who want a solution to neuropathic pain, depression, insomnia, loss of appetite, weight management, palliative care, de-addiction from harmful substances and such. “This is either because they don’t want to deal with side effects or because allopathy or homeopathy hasn’t worked for them,” says Dr Syed Tahir Hassan, who consults at the clinic, along with Dr Harshitha H, an Ayrurveda specialist.Currently, India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, prohibits the use and sale of the flower and resin parts of the cannabis plant, while allowing the use of the leaves and seeds. GLM-India (The Great Legislation Movement) had filed a petition last November, prompting Delhi High Court to seek the Centre’s stand on the prohibition. The hearing has been pushed to May 1, informs activistAfter bagging a pan-India license from the ministry of AYUSH, a USFDA certification and licenses valid in, as well as fighting “scepticism from a lot of doctors”, HempCann, founded by Sourab Agarwal, was able to set up shop. But, a lot more work remains to be done. Currently, the clinic hasn’t stocked cannabis medicines and will instead dispatch them from its manufacturing unit in Odisha, because it needs a separate license for that.