Uganda, fertile and sun-drenched, is harboring dreams of becoming the next cannabis hotshot of the African continent. Foreign capital has been flowing in to launch the new industry. So, much hangs in the balance as the country\u2019s cabinet weighs changes to the criminal code allowing cultivation to proceed.<\/p>\n
There appears to be a tension between the lure of a lucrative new agro-export sector and a conservative political culture in a traditionally authoritarian country.<\/p>\n
The government is now in the process of reviewing colonial-era laws that prohibit production of cannabis. The license for Together Pharma, a\u00a0major player<\/a>\u00a0in the Israeli cannabis industry, has reportedly been \u201csuspended\u201d (not cancelled) following demands for legal clarity from other cabinet ministers. Especially named is the state minister for Finance & Investment, Evelyn Anite.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the west of the country, along the shores of Lake Dweru,Israeli company\u00a0Together Pharma<\/a>\u00a0awaits approval to start planting. The operation was licensed by the\u00a0State Agriculture Ministry<\/a>\u00a0and cleared by the\u00a0Uganda Investments Authority<\/a>\u00a0to cultivate for the international medical marijuana market.<\/p>\n Agriculture Minister Christopher Kibazanga, who granted the licenses, struck a cautious tone when he spoke to Kampala\u2019s\u00a0New Vision<\/a>\u00a0on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA<\/a>) last week. \u201cIt is important for us to have clarity on what we want to achieve from this venture, instead of doing things haphazardly and turn the whole country upside down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Uganda\u2019s government is said to be weighing 20 bids from companies and individuals seeking clearance to cultivate and export medical marijuana. The\u00a0African Exponent<\/a>\u00a0calls it a \u201ccannabis scramble\u201d in the East African nation.\u00a0<\/p>\n But there is more than a whiff of reefer madness to the Exponent\u2019s quote from Health Minister Sarah Opendi. \u201cMarijuana growing without proper control measures can be dangerous to our youthful population,\u201d she said. \u201cAlready it is the second highest cause for the Butabika hospital admissions majority of whom are youth.\u201d Butabika is the capital Kampala\u2019s main psychiatric institute. The notion that psychiatric episodes are being \u201ccaused\u201d by cannabis is almost certainly based on\u00a0flawed assumptions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Agriculture Minister Kibazanga remains bullish on cannabis, even while clearly feeling the need to appease the conservatives. \u201cThe crop is among the most valuable on the international markets because of it being medicinal plant, but as government we are worried some Ugandans may end up being drug dealers. That is why we need strong regulations, which the top government decision-makers are in the process of coming up with,\u201d he told\u00a0EABW Digital<\/a>\u00a0international business website.<\/p>\n A report last month on\u00a0The East African<\/a>\u00a0website said that the while the cabinet debates, the Uganda Revenue Authority has approved the importation of 2,000 kilograms of cannabis seed by eager would-be cultivators. Varieties imported from seed banks in the Netherlands and Sri Lanka are said to include Desfr\u00e1n, Durban Poison, Frisian Dew, Mazar, Power Plant, Shaman, and the CBD-heavy Charlotte\u2019s Angel<\/p>\n Kibanzanga said the seed importers have expressed frustration over the delays. He told the local\u00a0Daily Monitor<\/a>\u00a0at the ASERECA conference: \u201cWe are aware that investors are becoming impatient and they have a right to do so. Some of them are investors from Israel, United States of America, Canada and others are from research institutions, all writing to me over the matter \u2014 growing of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent flurry of media attention to the question of legality in Uganda is testimony to investor impatience, and may prompt the cabinet to finally submit changes to the country\u2019s parliament amending the current law. Kibazanga claimed authority for granting the licenses under provisions of the 2015 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 2015, but conservative cabinet members say this conflicts with a 1902 law put in place by British colonial administrators and never formally overturned.<\/p>\n If the legal logjam does break, Uganda will be the fourth country on the African continent to permit cannabis cultivation to one degree or another. At the forefront is the small and landlocked mountain kingdom of Lesotho, which is\u00a0aggressively embracing commercial cannabis production<\/a>\u00a0as a ticket out of poverty and under-development.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lesotho is surrounded on all sides by regional giant South Africa, which now allows personal cultivation following a\u00a0favorable court ruling<\/a>\u00a0last year. South Africa\u2019s farmers, especially small black farmers who have been hit hard by globalization, have launched an initiative to allow commercial cannabis cultivation as well. \u00a0<\/p>\n A less likely candidate is traditionally authoritarian Zimbabwe, which last year\u00a0legalized medical marijuana cultivation<\/a>\u00a0by order of the Health Ministry.<\/p>\n Uganda seems an unlikely candidate as well. The country\u2019s\u00a0harsh anti-gay laws<\/a>\u00a0have especially\u00a0drawn criticism<\/a>\u00a0from international human rights groups. But the process is in the works, with pressure growing daily on the cabinet to give the go-ahead for eager cultivators to break ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think economic reasons are most likely to compel a government to legalize cannabis? \u00a0<\/p>\n The post Uganda Poised to Become Africa\u2019s Next Cannabis Powerhouse<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Uganda, fertile and sun-drenched, is harboring dreams of becoming the next cannabis hotshot of the African continent. Foreign capital has been flowing in to launch the new industry. So, much hangs in the balance as the country\u2019s cabinet weighs changes to the criminal code allowing cultivation to proceed. There appearsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3476,50,1180,1589,5,10231,415,81,5159,10232],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35946,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35945\/revisions\/35946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Progress and Backlash<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Seed Stock Imported<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Africa\u2019s Fourth Legal Producer\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Uganda Poised to Become Africa\u2019s Next Cannabis Powerhouse<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"