Shimla:Cultivation of cannabis for licensed medical, industrial and scientific purposes will be legalised in Himachal Pradesh soon, officials said on Friday.
The governor, in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 10 read with Section 78 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, has notified the rules to amend the Himachal Pradesh Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Rules, 1989, they said.
The cultivation would be strictly for medical, scientific and industrial purposes; any recreational use, unauthorised home cultivation, or unlicensed sale or trafficking would be treated as "illegal", the notification said.
Cannabis grows in the wild in several districts of Himachal Pradesh, including Kullu, Mandi, Chamba, Kinnaur, Shimla and Sirmaur, while cannabis plantations are uprooted every year.
According to the notification, the State Agriculture Department would be the nodal agency for supervising and monitoring cannabis cultivation, while licences would be issued by the Excise and Taxation Department.
The landholding proposed for cultivation shall not be less than three acres in a geographically contiguous area and the licensed cultivator, who must be a Himachali agriculturist as per provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, shall submit a self-certified undertaking confirming the accuracy of the land measurement and the location.
In case of any discrepancy or deviation from the terms and conditions, the licence shall be cancelled, and appropriate action will be taken under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the notification said.
The applicant shall also submit the plan of the landholding along with its Global Positioning System (GPS) co-ordinates, geo-tagging and designated area for the warehouse before the start of the harvest cycle.
The applicant shall furnish a security amount, equivalent to the annual fee for cultivation licence, in the form of fixed deposit receipt pledged or bank guarantee in favour of the district excise officer.
The licensee must have an on-site or in-house testing facility approved by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, to test the potency of the dried botanical material.
The licensed cultivator shall provide and furnish the requisite transaction records, video and security camera recordings, logbooks and weights and measurement scales to the inspecting authorities, who would be duty-bound to conduct regular inspection of the licensed area and the warehouse at least once a month.
The structured policy guidelines come after a lengthy process. The state assembly adopted a resolution in 2024 to move forward with the necessary legal amendments. To ensure that the policy was grounded in scientific evidence, the government approved a pilot study in January 2025.
This research project was a joint venture between CSK Agriculture University, Palampur, and Dr Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni in Solan.
The Agriculture Department acted as the nodal agency during this phase, evaluating the crop's potential and recommending the roadmap that eventually led to the July 2026 policy.
According to the notification, there shall be a single entry or exit point to the licensed premises, cultivated area and warehousing area, where surveillance cameras or CCTVs must be mandatorily installed.
Any attempted or actual unauthorised access to the site, the date and time of such entry and measures taken in response shall be reported to the district excise officer within 24 hours of the incident.
Moreover, the state will invest in specialised laboratories to certify seed quality.
High-level monitoring and rigorous oversight would be designed to ensure that the medicinal and industrial sectors can operate safely without the risk of crop diversion into the illegal trade, the notification said.
The licensed cultivator shall also declare the details of the entire landholding on which cannabis has been cultivated within a fortnight after completion of the sowing process, it said.
After each harvest, every licensed cultivator shall transfer the cannabis to the authorised licensed warehouse, to dispose of the produce by selling it to a licensed manufacturer within the state, the notification added.
All the finished products transferred to the "Finished Goods Store" and office of the excise officer shall be clearly demarcated in the licensed premises of the unit. The minimum capital investment required for setting up of a manufacturing unit shall be ₹100 crore.
A 3 per cent state cess -- 2 per cent towards milk cess and one per cent towards environment cess -- shall be levied on the annual turnover of the manufacturing units.
The licensee shall conspicuously display a signboard in painted letters with words "Licensed premises for processing and manufacturing of cannabis produce. Entry strictly prohibited" above the main entrance of the licensed premises.
The licensee and the permit holder shall neither use, consume, sell or transport any part of the cannabis plant other than the permitted part for the medical and scientific purposes extracted from the cannabis plant nor allow any other person to sell, use or consume the same, the notification said.
The state government shall notify a State-Level Review Committee to provide a single window system to take decisions about the processes involved in regulating the cultivation and other related issues, it said.