In two weeks Nepal will celebrate the festival of Shivaratri, Shiva's night. It draws half a million worshippers and thousands of sadhus, India's mendicant pilgrims who wander the Subcontinent from holy site to holy site and live on the offerings of the pious.

Bonfires burn all night, and so do the chillums of the sadhus, who smoke vast amounts of marijuana in emulation of Lord Shiva. Nepal's government provides food and shelter for the pilgrims, and also, though this is not publicly acknowledged, their weed.

newsblaze.com