A British account finds Nepal using cannabis but not growing it

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's 1819 account of Nepal reported Gangja and Charas as a common weed that was not cultivated, though much used for intoxication.^[1] Wheat fields were choked with hemp, which he called a troublesome and useless weed.^[1] Dried leaves came from the lowlands, but the extract charas — best from Tibet and prepared by stem incisions, in the same manner as opium — was preferred, rolled into pills of ten to twelve grains and smoked like tobacco.^[1]