Timeline
Four thousand years of one plant, in twenty dates.
From the Atharva Veda through the licensed hippie-trail shops, the 1973 ban, and the prohibition decades, to Gandaki’s 2026 provincial cultivation law. The whole chronology on one page.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. As of 19 September 2026 neither bill has reached a floor vote; the 1976 federal ban still stands.
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.
Province Chief returns the bill; assembly passes it again
Province Chief Dilliraj Bhatt returns the bill, citing drafting discrepancies and its conflict with the 1976 federal act, the first bill ever returned in Gandaki. On 31 July the assembly re-passes it without amendment, 32 votes to 25.
Gandaki's cannabis act is certified into law
Province Chief Bhatt certifies the bill and the act enters into force: a 0.3% THC ceiling, three-stage licensing, five-year licences, and fines of Rs 50,000 to 500,000, with recreational use still illegal. The federal Home Ministry responds that the 1976 act prevails and Gandaki cannot implement the law without federal permission.
Gandaki seeks federal facilitation; licences months away
Chief Minister Surendra Raj Pandey asks the prime minister to facilitate implementation of the new law. He later says drafting regulations will take four to six months, and that cultivation licences require a committed industry buyer.
Finance Minister Wagle backs regulated cultivation
Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle tells parliament the Ministry of Finance is ready to facilitate regulated cannabis cultivation and that a law is under discussion, calling medicinal legalisation reasonable; he repeats the position on 9 September. Cannabis received no mention in the FY2026/27 budget.