The remote kingdom of Bhutan, situated high in the eastern Himalayas between China and India, has developed a cannabis problem, worried authorities told the BBC News on May 30. The cannabis plant thrives in the remote, tiny kingdom, with 650,000 residents and only 6,000 closely controlled foreign visitors last year, but until recently had not been used for consciousness alteration, said the kingdom's joint director of health care, Dr. Rinchen Chopel.

Nobody paid much attention to the weed, using it for little more than pig feed, said Chopel. "But in the last few years, especially in the last couple of years, we have been concerned by the reports and cases that have come to the notice of authorities," he told BBC.

Despite the kingdom's notorious reclusiveness, Chopel blamed exposure to foreign media and the embrace of modernism for the turn to cannabis consumption. Satellite TV had recently arrived in the country, the BBC noted.

Chope told the BBC Bhutan's anti-cannabis program would concentrate on burning the plants and providing counseling to youths who wished to quit smoking using it.

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