The Rastafari Council have applauded Ghana Parliament for legalising cannabis for health and industrial purposes in the country.

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.

Reacting to this development, the Rastafari Council who have been advocating the legalisation of cannabis over the years congratulated the government and urged it 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.

“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,” the Council said in a statement.

The Council admonished the public to abide faithfully by the regulatory requirements contained in the Act in order to realise its objects.

The Council further said it looks forward to engage further with Parliament and the various arms of government on ways to harness the enormous economic, medicinal and environmental prospects of cannabis legalisation.

Already, countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho, and South Africa are among African countries that have decriminalised the use of cannabis for health purposes.