In Delhi’s National Capital Region, with about 35 million people, there’s only one shop. Most people who want to celebrate with bhang on Holi buy it illegally.

“We had a guy leave at 4 am to UP [neighboring state Uttar Pradesh] to collect bhang all day,” Mohit said, two days before Holi, so that the driver would return before police checks for drugs increase. “He’ll come back by evening, hopefully with enough bhang to fill our orders.”

Into the weeds: India’s history of cannabis

Though growing, possessing or using marijuana is illegal across India (except for government-regulated production and sale for bhang and hemp), it’s widespread. The cannabis plant grows like a weed in gardens, forests and especially, the Himalayan foothills and mountain regions, where you can spot it lining the road ditches.

The Vedas, Hindu scriptures dating back to 2000 to 1400 BCE, teach that cannabis is one of the earth’s five most sacred plants, and Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) prescribed cannabis as medicine as early as 6 BCE. When the British came to India, they were so intrigued by Indians’ widespread use of marijuana that they commissioned a report on its social and moral impact. The 1894 report concluded that criminalizing “so gracious an herb as cannabis would cause widespread suffering and annoyance.”

During the British colonial period, cannabis use was more common than today, likely due to increased alcohol and tobacco consumption and the imported stigma of cannabis. A 1961 United Nations treaty lumped cannabis with hard drugs and banned its production and sale except as medicine or for research. India tried to push back on the proposal, arguing cannabis is a religious and cultural tradition. In the end, India compromised to define bhang, procured from cannabis leaves and seeds, differently than marijuana (also called ganja in India), procured from the flower. Only the flowering part of the cannabis plant was banned.

The treaty gave countries like India 25 years to enforce the law fully, and at the end of that time, the Indian government passed a domestic drug law that conformed to the treaty. The difference is that India’s laws are still lax on recreational marijuana use, capping a sentence at six months for possessing up to a kilogram of weed.

Getting high as the heavens

The Vedas teach that the gods compassionately gave cannabis to humans to relieve our anxiety and fear and give us more joy.

Lord Shiva, part of the Hindu trinity and god of destruction and transformation, is often depicted with long, knotted hair or a top knot bun, smoking marijuana or drinking bhang. According to his legend, Shiva fell asleep under a cannabis plant after a heated argument with his family and then woke up feeling fresh and peaceful. So cannabis became Lord Shiva’s favorite pastime.

Another legend says that gods and demons stirred up the ocean to create a drink of immortality, but doing so created a deadly poison. Shiva drank the poison to save everyone (similar to Jesus), and was offered bhang to recover.

Today, many Shiva followers worship him by smoking marijuana, which the Indian government allows for true religious intent. Shiva sadhus, or self-imposed ascetic monks, can sometimes be seen sitting cross-legged on sidewalks, often half draped in saffron robes and dreadlocks, smoking pot.

It’s also believed that Shiva went to the Himalayas to meditate, where marijuana is more abundant.

“We’ve never seen any god but we believe that they take bhang for meditation, for concentration of mind,” said Piyu, an IT professional who frequents a government bhang shop in Noida, inside the Delhi National Capital Region. The shop is adjacent to two temples, with the temple next door in honor of Sai Baba, a Hindu saint believed to have been a reincarnation of Lord Shiva.

“Whatever Lord Shiva has done, it is for the good of others and for truth,” Piyu said.

Taking bhang helps his depression and insomnia, Piyu said, but still he warned me: don’t get addicted.

“People are just using Holi as a way to justify their use,” Piyu said. “It’s only okay to use bhang in moderation.”