The timing was not coincidental.

The early 1970s were the high-water mark of the United States' war on drugs, and Nepal, heavily dependent on foreign aid, treaty-bound by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, moved to bring its legal regime into alignment. American pressure, direct and indirect, was a factor. So was the optics of a U.S.-aligned government publicly licensing a hashish market while American soldiers were dying in a neighboring war over narcotics.

In July 1973, the government of Nepal formally revoked all licenses to cultivate, buy, and sell cannabis. The shop windows on Freak Street closed in days. Some became tea houses. Some stayed empty.

Three years later, in September 1976, the Nepali parliament passed the Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act, 2033, the statute by which the country still governs cannabis, with amendments. Cultivation, production, sale, possession, and consumption were made criminal offenses in all their forms. A trade that had been legal, taxed, and exported overnight became a criminal offense.

The economic cost was real and immediate. Tourism revenue from the trail collapsed. Hill farmers who had grown the crop for generations lost their legal market overnight and were left with two choices: stop growing, or grow in hiding. Most chose the second.

The act has been amended multiple times since. Its core prohibition has not.