Page 61 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

BUSINESS

research that call MJ a dangerous Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Angola, Ga- pharmaceutical company said that it
narcotic. bon, Sierra Leone, South Afrika, Sao had over 50 acres in DRC under the
Tomé, Botswana and the Democrat- plant from 2018, and agreements
The legal marijuana market, accord- ic Republic of Congo. The article with Malawi and Uganda, while
ing to Grand View Research, Inc, goes on to say that marijuana was Lesotho has issued multiple licenses
is anticipated to reach USD 73.6 not prominent in West Afrika until for its growth since 2017. Malawi
Billion by 2027 (that’s only seven the 1950s. Duvall’s history lesson began trials in 2016 and gave to
years from now) and part of this emphasizes that pot was initially licenses from 2018, Uganda started
growth is expected to be promoted legal under colonialism but was growing industrial hemp in 2012
by increased legalization of canna- outlawed by 1925 when it became and psychoactive cannabis in 2017,
bis for medical as well as adult-use. subject to international control un- Zimbabwe has issued licenses since
Adult-use means that adult citizens der the Geneva Opium Convention, 2017. Most of these licenses are to
of countries that authorize this will although even before this colonizers companies from North America and
be allowed to get high legally as is had caused production to diminish are priced way above what locals
the case already in South Afrika and in Afrika through direct and indirect can afford. Most of these countries
has been in the Netherlands for suppression of the crop. do not legally permit its use by their
years. citizens.
They used means such as taxation,
Grand View Research highlights the prohibition (The French and the Additionally, legalized marijuana is
medical segments that medical grass Ottomans prohibited the plant yet again a resource in Afrika that
is likely to impact, ranging from in Congo and Egypt, respectively is not benefiting its citizens directly.
neurological conditions to chronic because they felt its use diminished As Duvall points out in his article,
pain management, to the low-in- the quality and availability of labor), “The cannabis that has become legal
come buds segment. All these are others stigmatized its farming by in Africa is not the cannabis that
seen as ‘growth areas’ for the legal claiming its use was immoral while, has benefited African farmers.” He
marijuana market. pushing a shift toward export crops also goes on to say that “Foreign
like tobacco, coffee and tea – which capital is being used to exploit the
It’s almost funny that after decades are all drugs, by the way. Attempts continent’s resources – land, water,
of watching spliff being vilified, it is by European colonial businesses labor, and cannabis – rather than to
now being hailed as the next big le- to market weed to pharmaceutical offer meaningful opportunities for
gal thing on the world stage. People companies were not very successful Africans to accumulate wealth.”
were arrested for selling it, shamed in those days and eventually pro- You might find it interesting to learn
in public – but now that it is written duction of reefer went underground that Afrika’s “cannabis varieties are
on paper, it is official that it is a drug and legal action began to be taken coveted amongst marijuana seed
for medicinal use. This world!!! against growers, even while the con- producers. An American in 2012
Marijuana in Afrika’s History tinent saw a gradual increase in the stated, “Africa is […] the mother-
An article by Chris S. Duvall titled, growing of cannabis in the 1980s, ship for strains that […] are going
“A brief agricultural history of with Afrikan governments display- to be a huge factor in the future of
cannabis in Africa, from prehistory ing varying levels of tolerance, as medical cannabis” (Bluntman, 2012).
to canna-colony” says that cannabis per Duvall’s article. Land grabbing is happening in the
first arrived in Afrika from southern new, global cannabis economy too,
Asia over 1000 years ago. It landed The 21st century brought with it a exemplified by EXMceuticals con-
on the eastern and northern coasts rapid liberalization of cannabis in tract claims to more than 130,000
of the continent; and so began the Afrika, with South Afrika authoriz- acres of farmland in at least four
agricultural production of the crop. ing its use for medical purposes and countries (EXMceuticals, 2019b,
allowing its citizens to garden and 2019c).”
He says that it was used primarily as use it privately. In 2018, Omoyele
a smoked drug but had additional Sowore, while running for presi- The Marijuana Control Bill put
uses such as hemp fabric, cords, dent of Nigeria, said that Nigeria forward in 2018 by the late Kenyan
medicine, appetite suppression could make a lot of money like Member of Parliament, Ken Okoth,
(hence useful in mitigating hunger) other countries were if they grew it seems to have stalled in Kenya’s par-
and this was from Morocco to Mad- for export and pledged to do so if liament. If passed “it would decrim-
agascar to Mozambique and Kenya, voted in. EXMceuticals, a Canadian inalize possession and consumption,

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