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, the war's focus has been predominantly on places such as South America and Asia that produce the synthetic drugs heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, besides cannabis. 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. Ghana Web reported that '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.' Cannabis for industrial purposes can set a nation on the path to sustainable development and economics. It can negate, counter and offers a way out of the global crisis caused by the over-dependence on the fossil fuel industry and its allied industries: petrochemical-based synthetic pharmaceuticals, petrochemical-based chemical fertilizers and pesticides, petrochemical-based non-biodegradable plastics, fossil-fuel-based construction, petrochemical-based fabrics and textiles, petrochemical-based automobile parts, and so on. It is not just the harms of the fossil fuel industry that industrial cannabis will counter, it will also make various other industries environmentally sustainable such as: agriculture to grow hemp in place of cotton, rice and wheat; animal feed; wellness; tourism; food; beverages; cosmetics; paper; etc. While countries like France, the US and China have been cultivating industrial hemp on a war-footing in the last decade, African nations still lag behind in this area. It is surprising, considering that cannabis for industrial purposes was never prohibited in the 1961 Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs that all nations of the UN are signatory to. This shows the level of anti-cannabis propaganda and the power of those opposed to cannabis who form the wealthiest industries and people in the world today. The fact that no nation takes the trouble to see how much delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol(THC) a particular cannabis plant contains, and whether this is within the completely arbitrary and unscientific 0.3% THC levels set by policymakers, but, instead, destroys the cannabis plant on sight is one of the primary factors why industrial cannabis has almost vanished in the last century. This disappearance of industrial cannabis has coincided with the rise of the industries opposed to cannabis. It is these industries and the power structure that supports them - politicians, the medical industry, religious orthodoxy, cannabis prohibition groups, the media, law enforcement, drug enforcement, etc. - that have amplified the anti-cannabis rhetoric to such extents that even its use by industry is shunned due to the fear of exceeding the prescribed THC limits. Investing fully in industrial cannabis will replace unsustainable cotton, rice, wheat and tobacco crops. It will revolutionize the medical, agriculture, intoxicant, food, beverages, wellness, animal feed, tourism and other sectors besides directly addressing the problems of climate change and environmental destruction that have been caused by the industries opposed to cannabis. Ghana must completely legalize cannabis in all its forms with no restrictions on amount of THC and quantities of cannabis cultivated. This will translate into jobs for the people, revenue for the state, environmental protection and economic sustainability. With just 24 out of 50 US states having legalized cannabis so far, the US already has a legal cannabis market with a projected $100 billion economic impact in 2025. There is no reason why, Ghana with cannabis legalized in all its forms - recreational, medical and industrial - cannot have a cannabis market of about $100 billion within the next few years.
Though the decision to legalize cannabis for medical and industrial purposes 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. Cannabis is the world's safest, most affordable and easily accessible medicine with painkilling, stimulant, sedative, antibiotic, aphrodisiac, anxiolytic, and intoxicating properties, besides a host of other medical benefits. It was the herb of the poorest sections of society - the working classes, the indigenous communities, the minorities and the outcasts before it was prohibited by the elite ruling classes of the world so as to profit greatly from alcohol, tobacco, opium and synthetic pharmaceutical medicines. Today, in many parts of the world, especially in the so-called developed nations that were instrumental in global cannabis prohibition, cannabis is sold in the form of medical cannabis as a pharmaceutical drug that is available on prescription. Through this, the elite ruling classes of the world have access to cannabis which they claim that they use as medicine, whereas when the vast majority of the world, its poor lower classes and castes consume cannabis it is claimed that it is a harmful drug with no medicinal value, and the poor are arrested and imprisoned and the cannabis plant is destroyed. Through this discrimination against the world's lower classes and castes, and against the cannabis plant, numerous varieties of the plant have been destroyed and have gone extinct.
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. While the elite countries of the world get the high-end opioids like heroin and morphine, countries in Africa and Asia serve as dumping grounds for cheaper opioids that synthetic pharmaceutical companies create from the by-products of opium processing. Many nations in Africa have reported public health issues, especially among the youth, through the easy access, low cost and widespread availability of cheap opioids. India, the world's leading legal producer of opium, is the main manufacturer of tramadol through its numerous opioid-based pharmaceutical companies. Countries like Egypt and Nigeria raised concerns about Indian tramadol being dumped in their countries, leading to tighter regulation of the opioid back in India, though my guess is that the problem still very much persists and has only increased in recent times. The United Nations Office of Drug Control (UNODC) World Drug Report 2020 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.'
Growing scientific information is debunking all the myths that kept cannabis prohibited globally for nearly a century now. While Europe, North America and Oceania have embraced the latest scientific evidence regarding the benefits of cannabis, much of Asia and Africa still remains rooted in the myths and propaganda used by the colonizers to prohibit cannabis in the first place. 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.
There is increasing demands from lawmakers to legalize cannabis. 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. My News Ghana reported that 'Calls for legalization of marijuana in Ghana has heightened with several top officials calling on the government to legalize the drug.' 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, business, 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 and the federal US are close to recreational use legalization cite human rights, improving public health, reducing crime, decreasing the black market, improving law enforcement and reforming criminal justice, improving the economy and industry, etc. as some of the primary reasons for taking the step. In April 2024, South Africa, one of the leading African nations, legalized cannabis for recreational purposes. This has come a few years after South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled that cannabis prohibition violated an individual's constitutional rights. 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 Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia, Lesotho, Malawi and Morocco 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.
Most nations in Europe do not have the climatic conditions conducive to large scale cultivation of high-quality cannabis as an agricultural crop. Europe - which was largely instrumental in global cannabis prohibition starting with British prohibition in 19th century India - struggles to meet its demand for cannabis that Europeans now increasingly recognize as valuable medicine. Europe is turning to countries like Canada, Uruguay, Denmark, the Netherlands and Israel for its cannabis supply. Of these nations, possibly only Uruguay and Israel have climatic conditions suitable for large scale outdoor cultivation of cannabis. Canada dominated the global cannabis exports primarily because it has been one of the first nations to legalize recreational cannabis, enjoying a temporary early mover advantage. Global cannabis companies from the above cannabis exporting nations have forged relationships with other countries that have more suitable climatic conditions so that cannabis cultivation can be outsourced. These outsourced countries have not legalized cannabis recreationally but have legalized it sufficiently to enable cultivation of cannabis as medical cannabis. The people of these countries rarely see the cannabis which is handled by the global cannabis companies who grow cannabis in one country, not their own, and export it to another country typically in Europe or Oceania. This outsourced produce forms part of the Canadian exports of cannabis to Europe and Oceania. The countries most suited for cannabis cultivation and production - countries from Asia, Africa and South America - have long been pressurized by western nations to suppress cannabis production. If these traditional cannabis cultivating nations are able to freely produce cannabis like any other agricultural crop, they will be able to export surplus crops to nations in Europe, North America and Oceania that face a cannabis shortfall. Of course, it is most important for a country like Ghana to first ensure that there is sufficient cannabis to meet the needs of the people, especially the poorest sections of society - the working and labouring classes, the indigenous communities, the minorities and the outcasts - before it seeks to profit from cannabis exports internationally. Not only will cannabis heal Ghanian society as intoxicant, medicine, entheogen and means of sustainable livelihood, it can form the main source of export revenue for the country.
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. But four years on, only Germany and South Africa appear to have made the right decision. The majority of the nations of the world still exist in the world of anti-cannabis propaganda, firmly enslaved to the industries and power structure that continue cannabis prohibition globally. It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened, including the 24 US states (at the time of writing), 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. It is time for African nations like Ghana to take leadership role in this most critical battle to save the planet and humanity from the synthetic disaster wrought upon it by the elite ruling classes of the world who have long treated Africa and the cannabis plant as objects to plunder and suppress. The Ghanian flag, like many African countries, already sports the red, gold and green colors of the cannabis plant. It is time to make the symbolism a reality and make cannabis the cornerstone of future sustainable development...
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 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.'
'Calls for legalization of marijuana in Ghana has heightened with several top officials calling on the government to legalize the drug.'
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