Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and Ghana

African cannabis could open a treasure chest of varieties and valuable properties. This is because even though the war on cannabis has flourished everywhere and has not spared Africa, its focus has been predominantly on places such as South America and Asia that produce the synthetic drugs heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, which compete with cannabis and thrive in its absence. Hence the greater likelihood of local indigenous strains of cannabis still existing in interior, remote places, jungles and mountains among tribal African communities. These geographies and remote tribal communities are likely to be less affected by urbanization and the drive of law enforcement to exterminate the cannabis plant. Traditional farmers who have cultivated the plant for thousands of years are likely to still have preserved some of their varieties and their farming practices. Poor people unable to afford the expensive designer drugs of the western world such as heroin and cocaine may still be keeping the ancient and beautiful cannabis culture alive. Hopefully.

Ghana is said to have legalized cannabis for medical and industrial purposes recently. Medicines, clothes, biofuel and paper are some of the uses that the country plans. Though this sounds good on paper, ground realities need to be examined closely. Legalization for medical and industrial purposes, often means that the common man continues to remain without access to the herb while multinational companies and governments make the most of it. Under the intense lobbying pressure of powerful pharmaceutical companies and emerging Western cannabis businesses, there is the risk that local varieties may be patented by these companies or worse still destroyed and replaced by the varieties that these companies hold patents for. There is the risk that the small farmer who surely constitutes the major part of Ghana's farming community may be bullied out of the right to cannabis cultivation while the big businesses secure these rights. There is also the risk that cannabis cultivated in Ghana never reaches the people there but is instead processed and exported to North America, Oceania and Europe. The people who most need access to cannabis, that is the poorest, the minorities, the indigenous communities, the elderly, the youth, the ill and the women have no voice currently in the global scheme of things.

The UNODC World Drug Report 2020 highlights the dangers to Ghanaian society from the continued prohibition of cannabis for recreational purposes. Dangerous opioids, like Tramadol, are now pervading Ghana in the absence of cannabis. The report says - 'For example, a cross-sectional study among 300 young people in western Ghana found that while the majority (85 per cent) of respondents knew someone who misused tramadol, more than half of the young people interviewed had used tramadol themselves for non-medical purposes, and one third of the users reported misusing 9–10 doses of tramadol per day. Another qualitative study from Ghana reported curiosity, peer pressure and iatrogenic addiction as the three main factors for initiation and continuing non-medical use of tramadol, while perceived euphoria, attentiveness, relief from pain, physical energy and aphrodisiac effects were mentioned as some of the reasons for continuing non-medical use of tramadol.'

It is against this backdrop that Ghana has been in the news recently when one of the candidates standing for election to the government spoke about legalizing recreational use of cannabis if elected. It is most important for more voices to step up and start supporting this issue. Only the legalization of cannabis for adult recreational use, especially its home growing, will deliver true benefits to the people of Ghana. It is vital for all sections of Ghanaian society to recognize the plant's agricultural, medicinal, industrial, economic, tourism, environmental and recreational potential and to legalize the plant with home growing being allowed. Countries like Canada and Uruguay that have already legalized recreational use as well as countries like Mexico, the federal US and South Africa that are close to recreational use legalization cite human rights, improving public health, reducing crime, decreasing the black market, improving law enforcement, reforming criminal justice, improving the economy and industry, etc. as some of the primary reasons for taking the step.

It is important for Ghana to document, preserve and revive its native varieties of cannabis and to make it available to its people. Other African countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and Egypt have started showing signs of moving towards legalization of cannabis. Otherwise, there is the threat that the 28 million year old plant and its indigenous varieties might become extinct due to indiscriminate action by government officials and law enforcement.

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.

It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization 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 such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical, alcohol and tobacco. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.

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 non-medical use of tramadol is of particular concern among young people in many countries in that subregion. For example, a cross-sectional study among 300 young people in western Ghana found that while the majority (85 per cent) of respondents knew someone who misused tramadol, more than half of the young people interviewed had used tramadol themselves for non-medical purposes, and one third of the users reported misusing 9–10 doses of tramadol per day. Another qualitative study from Ghana reported curiosity, peer pressure and iatrogenic addiction as the three main factors for initiation and continuing non-medical use of tramadol, while perceived euphoria, attentiveness, relief from pain, physical energy and aphrodisiac effects were mentioned as some of the reasons for continuing non-medical use of tramadol.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

Legalize it for recreational use and home growing Ghana..otherwise it is a job half done. The cannabis plant is much more than a money making mechanism for governments and businesses. It is the plant of the people...

'With the legalization of Cannabis for industrial and health purposes, Ghana joins countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa who are changing their laws on narcotics.

Ghana’s new laws will make room for cannabis to be used to make medicines and hemp fibres. Hemp fibres are used to make clothes, biofuel, paper and other products.'
https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Ghana-legalizes-cannabis-for-health-and-industrial-purposes-900280

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html

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Cannabis and Ghana

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