Rwanda has approved the cultivation and export of cannabis – a highly addictive herb mostly smoked or mixed with food.
However the country still considers the herb illicit in the country.
The move by the Rwandan government comes as a shocker, considering the her tough stance on narcotics that leads to daily arrests of consumers and traffickers’ of marijuana.
Just a day before the herb was approved, three women were arrested for peddling marijuana.
According to the police, the three were suspected to drug dealers after they were caught in possession of 1,800 pellets of cannabis.
The country’s Minister for Health, Daniel Ngamije noted that even though the country’s intention is to profit from the production and export of cannabis, the narcotic will continue being illegal in certain instances.
“This will not give room to drug abusers and dealers. The law against narcotics is available and it will continue to be enforced,” Dr Ngamije said on Rwanda Broadcasting Agency on Tuesday.
In his 2018 research paper titled ” Drug use as a hindrance to socio-economic development in Rwanda” Gonzague Isirabahenda established that illicit drug use is one of the major challenges facing Rwandan youths.
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“A significant portion of these young people eventually gets addicted, posing a threat to their own health and safety, while creating difficulties for their families and the public at large,” he says in his research.
In East Africa, Tanzania registered the highest users of cannabis compared to other member countries, with up to 3.6 million people using the substance as per New Frontier Data, a research firm based in the UK.
While Kenya follows closely with 3.3 million peoples using cannabis while Uganda has 2.6 million users according to the report.
New Frontier Data revealed that i 2018, Africa recorded $37 million worth of cannabis consumption, which represents a small fraction of the $345 billion global market for cannabis.
