Every milestone, from sacred roots to provincial law.

Atharva Veda names cannabis sacred

The Atharva Veda lists bhanga among the five most sacred plants, calling it a source of happiness and a liberator from fear. This is the earliest written record of cannabis in the subcontinent's religious tradition.

Sources: Atharva Veda 11.6.15; Wikipedia: Cannabis and religion.

Shiva, 'Lord of Bhang'

The plant becomes inseparable from the worship of Lord Shiva. Shaivite texts describe Shiva using cannabis for meditation; the title 'Lord of Bhang' enters the devotional vocabulary. Sadhus adopt the plant as a sacrament, a practice unbroken to this day at Pashupatinath.

Sacred roots

Cannabis is woven into Shaivite devotional life: charas and bhang offered to Shiva, smoked by sadhus, blessed at festivals. The plant has four names (bhang, bhango, ganja, charas), each a different use.

Nepalese charas gains renown

By the eighteenth century, Nepalese charas is recognized across South Asia as the finest available. High-altitude landrace genetics and the hand-rubbing technique produce a product that commands premium prices from Calcutta to Cairo.

Source: Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal.

First Western documentation

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, a Scottish physician surveying Nepal for the East India Company, notes that cannabis grows as a common weed and is much used for intoxication. His account is the earliest Western description of cannabis use in the Kathmandu Valley.

Source: Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal (1819).

Licensed trade under the Ranas

Jung Bahadur Rana seizes power and establishes a hereditary prime ministership that rules Nepal for 105 years. Licensed cannabis shops operate openly throughout the Rana period, and the state collects tax revenue from the trade.

Sources: Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal; Wikipedia: Rana dynasty.

UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

The treaty that first bound signatories to prohibit cannabis for non-medical use. Nepal's later ban is traced back to this obligation.

Source: United Nations, Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961).

The hippie trail reaches Kathmandu

Overland travellers from Europe begin arriving in Kathmandu in large numbers, drawn by legal, cheap cannabis and the city's reputation as an end-of-the-road paradise. Freak Street becomes a fixture on the Istanbul-to-Goa route.

Licenses revoked; Freak Street closes

In July 1973 the government formally revokes all licenses to cultivate, buy, and sell cannabis, closing the legal hashish shops on Jhochhen Tole within days.

Sources: Government of Nepal; Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal.

Narcotic Drugs (Control) Act, 2033 BS

Parliament passes the statute that criminalises cannabis cultivation, production, sale, possession, and consumption. Still the basis of Nepali drug law today.

Source: Government of Nepal, Gazette No. 26 (2033 BS).

Production moves to the mid-hills

Charas cultivation shifts from Kathmandu to the remote mid-hills of Humla, Jumla, and Dolpa, where state presence is thin. Pressing moves indoors; trade moves across district and provincial lines.

Two truths about charas

The official line is that Nepal does not produce significant charas; the unofficial line, in Thamel teahouses and on trekking routes, is that the product is everywhere if you know the right people. Both are true.

Shivaratri tolerance narrows

Police announce they will arrest festival observers found smoking cannabis in public during Maha Shivaratri, ending decades of tacit tolerance at the festival. The move signals a shift from informal forbearance to active enforcement.

Sources: Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal; Wikipedia: Maha Shivaratri.

First parliamentary legalization motion

Communist Party MP Birodh Khatiwada and 47 other lawmakers file a motion in parliament calling for cannabis legalization, the first formal legislative attempt since the 1976 ban. The motion does not advance to a vote.

Source: Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal.

Health minister backs legalization bill

A second legalization bill, supported by the national health minister, is introduced in parliament. It does not advance, but it signals that cannabis reform has entered the political mainstream.

Source: Wikipedia: Cannabis in Nepal.

Federal commitment to medicinal legalization

Finance Minister Barsaman Pun announces in the 2024/25 budget that legal arrangements will be made for commercial cultivation and consumption of cannabis for medicinal purposes, the first such federal commitment since 1973.

Sources: Government of Nepal FY 2024/25 budget; NepalNews; MMJ Daily.

Karnali industrial-hemp pilot

Karnali Province announces a pilot framework for industrial hemp (THC below 0.3%) for fibre, seed, oil, and grain, framed deliberately away from the narcotics statute.

Sources: The Kathmandu Post; Asian Development Bank.

Gandaki drafts a cultivation bill

Gandaki Province, under Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey, drafts a bill to legalise cannabis cultivation for medicinal and industrial purposes, with a second province following the same path.

Source: NepalNews.

Federal reform bill still pending

Draft federal legislation (the Cannabis (Regulation and Control) Act, 2025 and the Bill to Regulate and Manage Cannabis Cultivation 2076 B.S.) proposes a license-from-local-government model. Not yet enacted; the 1976 federal ban still stands.

Sources: National Policy Forum; SAGE Journals; Substance Abuse and Rehabilitation (2024).

Gandaki passes Nepal's first cannabis-cultivation law

The Gandaki Provincial Assembly unanimously passes the Bill to Regulate and Manage Cannabis Cultivation for Medical and Industrial Purposes, 2026, with a 0.3% THC ceiling for industrial use. Gandaki becomes the first Nepali province to legislate cannabis cultivation.

Sources: myRepublica; eKantipur; NepalNews; MMJ Daily.