Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and Kenya

The African nations could possess some of the best natural varieties of cannabis in the world with many local indigenous species that have distinctive medicinal, recreational and industrial properties. This is because, in spite of the wars and violence that have affected many parts of the continent, in terms of Westernized development with its emphasis on everything synthetic, large parts of Africa still remain rooted in sustainability. This is clearly evident from the latest UNODC World Drug Report 2020 which says that while North America battles with opioids, the Middle East with amphetamines and South East Asia with methamphetamine, Africa battles with cannabis. To me, this is no battle at all but a sign that there are still parts of the world relatively untainted by the scourge of deadly synthetic drugs.

The challenge for Africa and countries like Kenya is to stay connected with these traditional and time tested practices for sustainability and protect them, including the cannabis plant, before it is too late. Kenya already faces a drug threat from vast amounts of pharmaceutical drugs flooding the country especially as Western countries become more stringent in their regulations and these dangerous and harmful drugs are then diverted to other more vulnerable countries around the world. The 2020 UNODC Drug Report says that Kenya is already one of the key countries in the southern route to Western and Central Europe through which heroin is trafficked.

The risk to large sections of the population getting addicted to these drugs is high. As the story goes in so many other places, taking away a healthy, medicinal, recreational, social plant like cannabis only paves the way for the space to be filled by some really dangerous man-made synthetic drugs like heroin, synthetic cannabis, novel psychotropic substances, opioids and methamphetamine. These take a deadly toll on lives and families. Coupled with overzealous law enforcement that focuses excessively on cannabis, large numbers of innocent people especially small farmers, the poor, indigenous communities, the sick, the youth and the elderly also end up in jail. Add to that the increasing difficulties of climate change and farmers inability to sustain themselves, driving them to cities to end up in slums and ghettos and we are talking about serious problems.

The greatest irony of all this is that the very nations that imposed sanctions and immense pressure to bring about cannabis prohibition world wide, the US, Canada, European nations like Germany, France, Spain, the UK, Israel, etc are now embracing cannabis like never before. Their people have understood the dangers of synthetic pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs and are rejecting them in favor of cannabis leading to increasing legalization for medical and recreational purposes. They are going about this legalization discretely presenting an international face of cannabis opposition so that the global pharmaceutical, petrochemical, alcohol and tobacco, food and beverage, wellness, etc. companies that are based out of them can continue to ply their trade in other nations as they continue to get squeezed out in their own countries for their unsustainable practices.

Kenya needs to legalize adult recreational use of cannabis as should every single nation of the world. For Kenya this will provide farmers with a sustainable crop, for the economy it will mean more jobs, for the industry it will mean tapping into the vast number of applications that the cannabis plant has, for people it will mean healthy, affordable, recreational and universal medical options and for the environment it will mean moving towards a sustainable way of life in a highly pained and stressed world. The natural varieties of cannabis if they still exist in Kenya should be documented, protected, revived and treated as national heritages. People, especially the poorest, should be encouraged to home growing, sharing and trading cannabis. Good varieties of cannabis can be traded with other parts of the world since there is a huge shortage of natural varieties everywhere given the widespread destruction of the plant that has happened in the last 80 years of prohibition. While doing all this, the people and government of Kenya should guard against the risk of cannabis ending in the hands of big businesses with poor people having no access to it. Small farm entrepreneurship should be encouraged to increase plant diversity and sustainability.

Other African nations such as Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Egypt, etc. have started taking steps to lift prohibition in incremental fashion. Kenya and all other African nations need to come out strongly at the UN as well to get the prohibition on cannabis lifted. This is not just important for the people of Kenya but for the entire world.

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 main countries identified in which heroin was trafficked along the southern route to Western and Central Europe over the period 2014– 2018 included India, the Gulf countries (notably Qatar and United Arab Emirates) and a number of Southern and East African countries (notably South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, the United Republic of Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Madagascar). The European countries reporting most trafficking along the southern route over the period 2014–2018 were Belgium (mostly via Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia and the United Republic of Tanzania) and Italy (mostly via Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Oman).' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

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 Kenya

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