Ministers will become Pablo Escobars, if legal cannabis farming allowed: Varad Mardolkar

PANAJI: Goa's Ministers will transform into 'Pablo Escobars', if the state government permits legal cultivation of cannabis, even if it is intended for medicinal purposes, Goa Youth Congress president Varad Mardolkar said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters after submitting a memorandum to Raj Bhavan opposing the proposed move of the Goa government to allow legal cultivation of cannabis, Mardolkar also said that it would be very difficult to regulate cultivation of cannabis in the state once it acquires legal status.

"Goa's Ministers will turn into 'Pablo Escobars' if legal farming of marijuana is allowed in the state. Some ministers have a vested interest in this and they are running the state and taking these decisions on behalf of the drug lobby," Mardolkar said.

"Given the state of the government's administrative apparatus, it will be very difficult to regulate such plantations," Mardolkar said.

This is not the first instance that the name of 'Pablo Escobar', a slain drug lord from Columbia, has been used as a metaphor to highlight the issue of easy availability of narcotics substances in Goa.

Earlier this year, BJP spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik had urged the Goa Police to track down the "real Pablo Escobar" of Goa's drug trade, after the cops raided a drug-laced rave party in the beach village of Anjuna.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has confirmed that the state government was mulling legal plantations of cannabis to facilitate production of raw material to the pharmaceutical industry.

The cabinet is soon expected to take a final decision on the cannabis plantation proposal, which has been mooted by the Jammu-based Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, a central government agency. (IANS)

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