Ghana Legalizes Medical Cannabis
The Parliament of Ghana voted on a bill last week that has effectively legalized cannabis for medical use.
According to Ghana Web on March 20, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Narcotics Control Commission Bill, 2019. This act officially transforms the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) into a Commission that will take control of the medical cannabis industry and help eliminate illegal trafficking in the Republic of Ghana, located in west Africa. The new law gives the Minister for the Interior the power to grant a license for those who seek to cultivate hemp with less than 0.3 percent THC.
Hemp Association of Ghana President Nana Kwaku Agyemang, among many other advocates, are praising the Parliament of Ghana’s decision. “We are not promoting smoking, we are promoting the industry, we are promoting cleaning up the environment, we are promoting creating a new revenue stream for government in terms of taxing from cultivation and export and we are talking about promoting medicines that are far better than opioids, medicines that cannot kill you because no one has died from taking cannabis,” Agyemang stated.
The Rastafari Council also released a statement in support of this recent development. “The legalisation of Cannabis in Ghana paves the way for sustainable job creation, income opportunities for households and marginalised populations, enhanced foreign capital remission through export, lawful access to medicinal advancements in cannabis, and the regeneration of lands which have been destroyed through surface mining and acts of environmental degradation,” the Rastafari Council said in a statement, according to Ghana Web.
Ghana is not the first African country to legalize. Countries including Malawi have also legalized medical cannabis, while other countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and South Africa have embraced decriminalization. The city of Cape Town, located in southern Africa, recently put regulations in place to allow medical cannabis revenue to benefit the people of the city, with plans to legalize medical cannabis sometime this year.
