I never expected my background examining language and its putative role in shaping supposed truths to catch up with me so soon but after joining Cannabiz Africa back in January, first as Africa correspondent and now as editor, I have had a virtual front row-seat in witnessing the way in which narratives around cannabis are determining socio-economic realities.
When Lesotho became the first African country to legalise cannabis for medicinal and industrial use in 2017, the hubbub of excitement that swept through a continent awakening to the potential of the green gold was palpable. However, the euphoria was not unchecked: a nagging undertow based on cannabis illiteracy, if one might call it that, accompanied it in most instances.
Ignorance being a harbinger of denialism, the latter has characterised the manner in which even those few countries that have had at least the initial insight to adopt friendly legislation are going about implementing protocol and regulation, and also the pace at which this is being done.
Take Kenya, Uganda and Zambia for example. Friendly legislation has yet to be followed up with real actionable movement in Kenya. In Zambia, Health Minister Dr Elijah Muchima earlier this year hailed cannabis oil as the next big game changer in countering rising cases of prostate and breast cancer before qualifying without further edification that cannabis was “strictly for medicinal purposes” and the Zambian Business Times shortly afterwards reporting that cannabis legislation had been paused, seemingly in a haze of obfuscation.
Over in Uganda, language around cannabis is not being rehabilitated and the subject remains taboo; harvest is transported from the farm to the airport under police guard as cannabis is “strictly for export”. In Tanzania, where all forms of use remain prohibited, the bugbear is officialese. Recently, officials have interpreted the country’s anti-drug legislation to include prohibition of clothing branded with drug symbols such as the cannabis leaf.
Sadly, a strong cannabis economy should already been thriving by now, creating employment and improving standards of living. Instead, doublespeak, dog whistle and outright repudiation are still common, including in countries that have approved limited use. This has been to the detriment of prospective farmer stakeholders, faced with declining revenues of cash crops in recent years, and whose reversed fortunes cannabis could help improve.
But it shouldn’t have been this way and the creeping denialism did not come from nowhere. It is a reflection of how generations of citizens and leaders have been habituated to colonial-era cannabis laws that stigmatised the plant, which many African communities had been using for hundreds of years, as seen in its classification under “dangerous drugs” Acts, from Botswana, Ghana, Malawi, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa to Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Even so, Zambia limits participation in cannabis cultivation and manufacturing to its defence force, thereby underscoring the chasm between words and deeds and an approach that jars with that of Malawi, where cannabis cooperatives have generated sustainable employment as the country reaps forex and other dividends from its cannabis endeavours, something Zambia has since taken note of and responded to by deploying the army on fact-finding missions to learn from Malawi’s success story.
However, ignorance surrounding the difference between high THC medicinal cannabis and low THC industrial hemp has inhibited acceptance and off taking greatly. Ghana’s induction of a hemp industry has, for instance, been stalled by players no less than lawmakers, some of whom have deliberately spread disinformation, including the claim that cannabis is a precursor to psychosis when in fact hemp does not possess the psychotropic properties that give the high in THC varieties.
All this calls for a new culture rooted in awareness-raising and an appropriate linguistic register for Africa to become a respected player in a burgeoning global cannabis economy, estimated to top $70-billion this year.
A ready market awaits. With mostly developed world citizens living longer, which predisposes them to developing one or other form of cancer, cannabis can only become more popular as it is instrumental in ameliorating some of the distressing symptoms of the disease and the after-effects of procedures such chemotherapy, with patients reporting relief from nausea, appetite loss and diarrhea, apart from self-administered everyday use for joint muscle pain and other niggling. In Africa too, there is a case to be made for cannabis as a worthy alternative, what with the Trump administration having gutted PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) and other health programmes that were benefitting millions.
Cannabis is not the holy grail it must be stressed; although it has not been proven to cure cancer, it contains anti-cancer properties and should made a more freely available alternative.
All is not lost, however: citizen engagement where governments have not shown leadership or could do with support, might prove the difference when it comes to acceptance and potential economic viability. For example, the non-profit Cannabis Association of Botswana (CAB) has made it its mission to educate potential stakeholders about cannabis with programmes such as Know Thy Plant, helping to foster understanding.
In Namibia, activists are engaging government in the courts to decriminalise cannabis even as government itself is reportedly exploring ways of inducting a hemp economy behind the scenes. The government caught many by surprise in June when it sent a high-profile delegation to attend a cannabis regulatory conference in Colorado. Nudge nudge, wink wink!
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