BHOPAL: Congress MLA from Chachoura assembly seat Lakshman Singh on Monday came face-to-face with BJP senior spokesman Dr Hitesh Vajpayee on social media with an argument over marijuana.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Lakshman Singh – brother of senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, said, “Marijuana is unfortunately being associated with ‘religion’, being given the name of ‘Shiv booti’. This is the reason why its consumption is increasing and the youth are getting destroyed. According to the religious scriptures, Lord Shiva drank the poison that came from the amrit manthan, not marijuana.”
BJP’s Dr Hitesh Vajpayee gave a detailed argument to counter Lakshman Singh. He replied to @laxmanragho’s tweet and said, “The two chemicals found in the hemp plant are tetrahydrocannabinol i.e THC and cannabidol i.e CBD. Intoxication in hemp is caused by the presence of THC. Cannabidol has no addictive properties and no one gets addicted with its use.”
Reacting to the Congress MLA’s mention of the religious scriptures, the BJP senior spokesman Vajpayee argued, “There is mention of ganja (hemp) in 200 different places in the Ayurveda. The name of the narcotic substance of this plant is ganja. In Sanskrit it is called Vijaya. In Ayurveda, its use is not considered bad. There are many ayurvedic medicines in which not only is Vijaya used but opium is also used. It depends on how you use it and how important is the use of this ingredient.”
The BJP spokesman further said that compared to the global average, use of cannabis in India is low. He said, it is 3.9% globally and only 1.9% in India. “Compared to this, the concern for India is heroin made from opium. Where an average 0.7 % of people in the world use opium based intoxicants, 2.1% of people in India use such substances. Maharaj, don’t defame Lord Shiva forcibly to show yourself as “secular”!” Vajpayee said.
Lakshman Singh retaliated with, “You are so knowledgeable, I can’t compete with you.” To this Vajpayee replied, “It was not my intention to hurt your honour.”
