A Sub-Committee constituted by Govt. of Himachal Pradesh was on two days visit to CSIR-IIIM Jammu and its Branch Lab Srinagar to deliberate on and understand about the current research Project on Cannabis research undertaken by CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu.

Kewal Singh Pathania and Malender Rajan, (MLAs), Dr. Rajeev Dogra, Additional Commissioner State Taxes & Excise and Prof. Rajan Katoch, CSK Agriculture University, Palampur were the members of the visiting Committee.

Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director, CSIR-IIIM, during the meeting with the visiting team, informed that CSIR-IIIM, Jammu institute, under the initiative of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, has started the research work on Cannabis in 2017 after obtaining the license from Jammu and Kashmir Govt.

At present, CSIR-IIIM has been able to arrange a repository of more than 500 accessions collected from different parts of the country. The scientists of the institute are working in different directions to provide the end-to-end technology for Cannabis cultivation, drug discovery with emphasis on disease conditions like pain management in cancer and epilepsy.

He also mentioned that under a tripartite agreement of CSIR with Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), CSIR-IIIM has completed the exploratory research on Cannabis.

However, for further pre-clinical regulatory studies related to management of Cancer Pain and epilepsy, it is very important to carry out GMP manufacturing for pre-clinical and clinical studies which are mandatory requirements of the discovery of newer therapeutic drugs.

An application for getting the license from the Excise Department of J&K Govt. for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) manufacturing and transportation of Cannabis material exclusively for scientific purpose is under active consideration by J&K Govt.

The committee also visited CSIR-IIIM, Jammu Chatha Farm to see the cultivation of Cannabis in Captivity and glass houses and observed that there is enormous potential of cannabis-based remedies which can be used for treating a variety of health.

Kewal Singh Pathania and Malender Rajan, two MLAs, who were part of the delegation, after having detailed discussions and visits were optimistic to develop a cannabis guideline in Himachal Pradesh to make the best use of the plant which has remained abusive to use till date.

They also emphasized the importance of initiating the research and clinical trials on Cannabis which would significantly contribute to producing the newer therapeutics for cancer pain management, epilepsy and other diseases.

Pertinently, the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine is a pioneer in the study of cannabis and holds the nation’s first cultivation permit. As a result, many other states, including Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh, have begun to create policies and regulations for the use of cannabis for scientific purposes.

Among other present on the occasion were Er. Abdul Rahim, Chief Scientist and Head RMBD & IST Division, Dr. P P Singh, Sr. Principal Scientist and Dr. Saurabh Saran, Principal Scientist and I/C Technology Business Incubator & Dr. Vishav Prakash Rahul, Sr. Scientist, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu.