Crafting of law ‘legalising mbanje’ in final stages

GOVERNMENT is finalising crafting of a law that will legalise production of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Speaking at the close of the InterCannAlliance Symposium in Victoria Falls on Saturday, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Government is amending the Dangerous Drugs Act to come up with a policy where the ministry will issue licences, do necessary inspections and ensure that cultivation is on an experimental basis initially. 

Currently cultivation and use of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp is regarded a criminal office under the Dangerous Drugs Act.

InterCannAlliance is on a worldwide awareness campaign to educate nations on opportunities around medicinal cannabis production, hence the conference in Victoria Falls.

“We are here to learn so we come up with a policy direction because we don’t have a lot of experience in this. In Zimbabwe we had clustered everything as dangerous drugs and we are working on a regulatory framework for cultivation of cannabis as we need to ensure laws are structured well as we study how other countries are doing,” said Minister Ziyambi.

He said his ministry will monitor the sector through short term licences and thereafter allow the Department of Agriculture to do cultivation while the Ministry of Health and Child Care will control usage to avoid abuse. 

Minister Ziyambi said Government takes seriously investment in cannabis production adding that investors will be allowed to partner with anyone.

“In the initial stage we need to have more information so we come up with a statutory instrument that will allow us to legalise cannabis production and have a medicinal cannabis project implementation that will maintain compliance and keep abreast with global best practices,” said the Minister. 

He assured prospective investors of a safe environment saying the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency Bill, which has passed Cabinet stage, will ratify that position.

The two-day InterCannAlliance conference which was organised by New Frontier was attended by Government representatives and prospective operators from around Africa and beyond.

It came at a time when Zimbabwe is among some countries that have made the initiative to legalise growing of cannabis and hemp which have a socio-economic impact on the economy through revenue and employment creation as well as medicinal benefits.

Government recently announced a decision to legalise cannabis production and that it had received more than 200 applications from local and international investors wanting to venture into cannabis production in the country. 

A local organisation-Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust (ZIHT) – is among the first to apply to Government for a licence to produce industrial hemp.

Its chief executive Dr Zorodzai Maroveke on Saturday told delegates at the symposium that the country has potential to become the world’s leading producer of hemp.

“Policy reforms are one of the major priorities of the new government’s vision 2030 for an upper middle economy premised on job creation and industrialisation hence industrial hemp will contribute significantly towards that. After forming the trust and writing a concept paper in 2016, we started engaging business people and we are happy with the response. Zimbabwe is a top tobacco producer worldwide and has potential to be a top producer of industrial hemp as well,” she said.

Industrial hemp, technical name cannabis sativa, is a non-narcotic fibre crop related to mbanje, which is used to make various industrial products.

It is different from mbanje, whose technical term is cannabis indica or Indian indica which is smoked as a drug.

It is used to make bond paper, cloth, vehicle seats, sofas as well as edible oil. Medicinal cannabis is prescribed by physicians for patients with epilepsy, arthritis and bone problems among other health conditions.

— @ncubeleon