In February 2019, Cyprus appears to have taken steps to legalize the cultivation and production of cannabis for medical research and medical use. Cyprus Mail reported that 'The House plenum on Friday voted into law a bill regulating the cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis. The law regulates the import of cannabis seeds and plants, the cultivation, production, import and export of pharmaceutical cannabis and its use for research for medical purposes. It also reportedly provides regulations for galenical preparations for medical or pharmaceutical production, and for free provision of medical cannabis to eligible patients.' It is unknown to me what the impact of this change in laws has been and how this has benefited the people of Cyprus.
Cannabis for recreational purposes reduces the need for cannabis for medical purposes, as it serves as preventive medicine for the population, thus reducing the occurrence of illnesses that warrant the use of cannabis for medical purposes. Therefore, to have a truly positive impact on public health it is more important to legalize cannabis for recreational use, especially its home growing, than to legalize for medical use which generally only benefits the elite classes of society who can access physicians who issue medical certificates and finally access and afford cannabis sold as a pharmaceutical drug. Many US states have first experimented with cannabis for medical use and have come to the conclusion that it is safe to legalize for recreational use. Hence, there is no need for other places to delay access to the wider population for fears that recreational use legalization will cause widespread addiction, crime and a general degeneration of society. But, in general, we see that the elite sections of society oppose cannabis for recreational use because they do not want the vast majority of society to have free access to the medicinal herb which is also the world's best intoxicant, stimulant, entheogen and a means of sustainable livelihood for the poorest sections of society - the small farmers, the working classes, the indigenous communities and the outcasts. The main reason for opposing full legalization of cannabis is that it directly affects the industries that benefit from cannabis prohibition and keep the elites wealthy and powerful. Also, the use of cannabis by the vast majority of the population will foster free thinking, creativity and economic independence. These are things which the elites in any oppressive society do not want, as it means the loosening of the hold they have on the public.
On the other hand, prohibition of cannabis forces society, which needs a recreational drug to look to more dangerous drugs that become accessible through the black market. Synthetic drugs like heroin, methamphetamine and other amphetamine like substances (ATS), synthetic cannabinoids and novel psychotropic substances (NPS) make inroads into society with the unscrupulous illegal drug traffickers pushing these dangerous and expensive drugs to make greater profits than what they would get selling cannabis. This is clearly evident from the fact that during this time of cannabis prohibition over the last few decades, Iran and Afghanistan have emerged as hubs for methamphetamine and heroin. Countries in the Middle East, such as Syria, have emerged as key sources of amphetamine like substances (ATS) such as Captagon. Countries like Morocco and Afghanistan cannabis have emerged as key sources of cannabis in its illegal state. This is in addition to an increased abuse of easily available synthetic pharmaceutical drugs created in countries like China and India that are then flooded into markets in the Middle East and Africa. The opioid tramadol is a classic example of this.
Cyprus is one of the Middle Eastern countries along with Israel, Morocco and Lebanon that has shown positive signs of legalizing cannabis. Boasting of a climate that cannabis cultivation can thrive in, Cyprus cannabis could become as famous as Lebanese hashish. Cyprus has in recent times had collapses to its economy from crippling debts and financial meltdowns. Cannabis offers a way to sustainable economic recovery for the country. There are surely local varieties of cannabis that have grown in the native conditions of Cyprus over thousands of years. How far they have been preserved needs to be ascertained. Given the rapidly changing climate due to global warming, cannabis is an ideal crop for areas facing water stress. Not only can it sustain itself in tough conditions, but the crop also has multiple industrial, medicinal and recreational uses as is being evidenced in the US as cannabis legalization sparks a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Cannabis in Cyprus can create jobs in the economy. It can become a signature produce for export to various parts of the world especially Europe which is in close proximity and has a huge demand in countries like Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc. for quality sun grown cannabis which does not grow much in European conditions. Revenue and taxes from cannabis can be used to support farming, education and healthcare. Research into cannabis can be carried out at the levels of government, industry and universities. The cannabis industry can provide career opportunities as well as industrial applications of the plant to areas as diverse as construction, biofuels, biodegradable plastics, super capacitors, fabrics, paper, animal feed, wellness, food, beverages, and car bodies. Legal cannabis introduced in the country should, as in any other country of the world, boost agriculture, foster research, spawn multiple industries, increase tax collection, curb the black market, cut down the harms from more dangerous drugs like heroin and methamphetamine, boost tourism, to name just a few benefits.
It is a positive step that the government has taken in opening up to cannabis legalization. This needs to be taken forward to recreational adult use legalization to ensure that the medicinal herb reaches all who require it, especially the poor, the aged, women, the working classes and the sick who currently are dependent on expensive and harmful synthetic pharmaceutical medicines in the absence of universal natural medicine. A country like Cyprus taking the steps towards legalization could trigger a ripple effect among other countries in the Middle East, setting the foundation for a more sustainable and natural future, very possibly a peaceful one as well.
In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does, however, still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws. Morocco, in recent times, has legalized cannabis cultivation for export purposes but keeps it illegal for use by the local population. In 2024, Germany and South Africa legalized cannabis for recreational purposes, joining Canada, Uruguay, Malta and Luxembourg. In the US, 24 states have legalized cannabis for recreational use (at the time of writing). The US cannabis industry is projected to have a $100 billion footprint in 2025 despite it being illegal at the federal level. Canada's legal cannabis market overtook the black market within two years of legalization. Germany and Canada cited reduction in crime and the protection of the youth as primary reasons for legalizing cannabis. While South America's cannabis legalization will cater mainly to the markets within the continent and North America, the Middle East and Africa's cannabis legalization will cater to European markets besides local markets.
Cannabis legalization will enable the world to move away from the unsustainable industries that destroy the planet and push the world to the brink of climate disaster. But the current power structure in most nations is designed to benefit the elite classes opposed to cannabis. The power structure's enabling elements are: politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement and drug enforcement, the armed forces, to name a few. The increasing awareness that almost all anti-cannabis propaganda is false, created by selfish interests, is one of the key factors. Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. Some of these myths are: cannabis causes insanity; cannabis is addictive and harmful; cannabis is more harmful than alcohol, opium and tobacco; cannabis is used by criminals and causes crime; cannabis is used by the lowest classes and castes of society; women who use cannabis are prostitutes; cannabis legalization will destroy the youth; and so on. Most of these myths were debunked more than 150 years ago itself, by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1894-95 set up by the British colonial rulers of India in order to prohibit cannabis and promote their alcohol, opium, tobacco and western medicine. But that did not stop the world from still going ahead and prohibiting cannabis, since the elites of the world who control global drug policy had amassed great wealth and power through the sale of their preferred drugs - alcohol, opium and tobacco - and had also grown vastly rich in the industries that thrived in the absence of cannabis, namely the petrochemical industry, the synthetic pharmaceutical industry, the petrochemical-based fertilizer and pesticides industry, the fossil-fuel based construction industry, the petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics industry, the synthetic fabric and cotton industry, the timber-based paper industry, and so on. Cyprus too was under British rule till 1960 so the same anti-cannabis rhetoric and strategies that enabled the British colonists to prohibit cannabis in the land of ganja, India, would have been employed in Cyprus to snuff out its cannabis culture.
We see the world over that cannabis prohibition is essentially the caste and class system being played out where the ruling elites oppress the lower classes and castes - the working classes, the minorities, the indigenous communities - and the poorest sections of society so as to keep them in shackles and make them work for the ruling elites. The ruling elites access cannabis as medical cannabis or procure it from the black market. The oppressed classes can do neither. The medical industry ensures that only the elites can access medical cannabis. Law enforcement and drug enforcement ensure that only the elites can afford and access cannabis from the black market. If the lower classes and castes grow or access cannabis, they are swiftly punished by the power structure of the elites. It is this global class and caste system that enabled the elites to prohibit cannabis in the first place. It is ironic that the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs that all nations of the world are signatories to and whose national drug laws closely adhere to, does not prohibit cannabis for industrial purposes. Despite this, almost no nation pursued cannabis for industrial purposes in the 20th century and only a handful of nations - China, the US, France, to name a few - have seriously adopted industrial cannabis in the 21st century. This shows the power of the industries opposed to cannabis that the elites thrive on and use to control the world.
It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization for recreational purposes has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots-level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.
Related articles
Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.
'The House plenum on Friday voted into law a bill regulating the cultivation and distribution of medical cannabis.
The law regulates the import of cannabis seeds and plants, the cultivation, production, import and export of pharmaceutical cannabis and its use for research for medical purposes.
It also reportedly provides regulations for galenical preparations for medical or pharmaceutical production, and for free provision of medical cannabis to eligible patients.'
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