Cannabis tourism

However, some isolated, impoverished agricultural communities, known for large-scale illegal marijuana production, also attract cannabis tourists, with significant economic impact.

Many, especially members of the hippie subculture, experienced destinations with centuries-old traditions of cannabis use and cultivation as they traveled across Central and South Asia.

In some stops, cannabis was legal and regulated in some forms prior to modern drug prohibition, while in others production was tolerated as a cash crop.

[28] Indian law prohibits marijuana nationwide, but some states allow and regulate bhang, a preparation of cannabis leaves with religious significance in Hinduism.

[29] The communal elder of Malana village, long world-renowned for its hashish,[30] banned homestays in 2017 to curb cannabis tourism.

[33] Before 1973, taxed and regulated vendors of ganja, charas and bhang operated openly catering to western tourists on Old Freak Street in Kathmandu.

Nkhotakota District, which has a productive illegal chamba industry, is particularly popular with cannabis tourists, thanks to lax enforcement and its natural beauty.

[citation needed] Around the 1970s, in response to a growing counterculture, the Netherlands adopted a liberal drug policy, tolerating the use and sale of cannabis in regulated consumption lounges known as "coffeeshops".

Large-scale cannabis tourism has resulted, making the policy controversial in Dutch politics and society, especially since the country entered the Schengen Area.

Local police have installed closed-circuit television cameras and increased enforcement to curb cannabis tourism, with little success.

[40][41] Some countries, including Russia, South Korea and Japan, prosecute their citizens for consuming cannabis in jurisdictions where it is legal.