The use of cannabis has been legalised by Ghana for medicinal and industrial purposes as it joins other African countries hoping to gain economic and health benefits from the product.
On Friday the Ghana's legislature passed into law the Narcotics Control Commission Bill, 2019.
The law has now made the country’s Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) a Commission and given it the mandate to oversee the industrial use of some narcotic substances.
However, the Commission, will have the power to control and eradicate the trafficking of abolished narcotic drugs to ensure public safety.
Health experts over the years, have always rallied for addicts of narcotic drugs to be properly rehabilitated and not treated as criminals.
There is provision for the enforcement of this campaign in the new law as well as making drug abuse a public health issue.
With the legalization of Marijuana for industrial and health purposes, Ghana joins countries like South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe who are amending 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 manufacture clothes, biofuel, paper and other products.
Ghana is hoping to rake in some revenue as well when industrial production of cannabis begins.
Expedite passage of narcotics bill - Hemp Association to govt
Industrial deals already signed after the legalization
In Ghana, there is already the Hemp Association of Ghana (HAG) which has signed a deal with a Ghanaian-owned Cannabis business operator based in Portugal.
The contract will bring an income of $56 million in a period of five years from merely cultivating and exporting industrial hemp from a land size approximating 100 acres.
It will rake in around $2.8 million per harvest of HAG’s industrial hemp on the planned 100 acres.
Taxes to the Ghanaian government could amount to over $ 10 million from just 100 acres of industrial cannabis if the authorities evaluate the industrial potential of the plant taking the world by storm currently.
President of the Hemp Association of Ghana Nana Kwaku Agyemang told Africa Feeds that “We seem to get lost in this issue of getting high, and all we can talk about as Ghanaians is smoking.
As President of the Hemp Association of Ghana, 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.”
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