A pressure group known as the Rastafari Council has patted Parliament of Ghana for enacting a law that will allow for the medicinal use of marijuana in the country.
The Council, which has been strong advocates for overall legalisation of marijuana said this development will create jobs for outgrowers of the crop.
In a statement copied to the media on the new legislation, the Council said: “The legalisation of Cannabis in Ghana paves the way for sustainable job creation, income opportunities for households and marginalised populations, enhanced foreign capital remission through export, lawful access to medicinal advancements in cannabis, and the regeneration of lands which have been destroyed through surface mining and acts of environmental degradation”.
It urged the government to take advantage of this opportunity to initiate policies to industrialise the production and processing of cannabis in the country as part of the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
On Friday 20th March 2020, the Parliament passed the Narcotics Control Commission Bill, 2019, which transforms the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) into a Commission with enhanced powers to control and eliminate trafficking of prohibited narcotic drugs.
Per the new law, NACOB also becomes a Commission with additional powers to oversee the industrial use of some narcotic substances.
The new law empowers the Minister for Interior to grant licences for the cultivation of cannabis of not more than 0.3 percent THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis that gives the users a high sensation, for industrial and medicinal purposes.
