Thiruvananthapuram Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has backed India’s move to remove cannabis from the list of dangerous drugs and legitimize it. On December 2, out of the 53 members of the United Nations Commission on Narcotics Drugs (CND), 27 countries, including India, voted in favour of removing cannabis from the list of most dangerous drugs.
Taking to Twitter, the Congress MP attached a two-year-old tweet and said that despite never consuming cannabis himself, two years ago, he was attacked for a policy recommending the legalization of cannabis, and now India has joined a majority of countries in the UN Drug Commission to delist it as a dangerous drug.
Two years ago, Tharoor, along with this nephew Avinash Tharoor, who is working on a drug policy reform, had waded into argument favouring the legalization and regulation of cannabis. In an article written by the Tharoors, they mentioned that legally regulating the supply, production and usage of cannabis could weaken corruption and crime and reduce the potential harms for cannabis. The possible threats that cannabis possesses show why it must be regulated and not left to the underworld criminals who are selling it illegally and pocketing money that could be used for dangerous activities.