African Nations Eye Cannabis Legalization for Economic and Medical Benefits

Among the 9 countries (South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Nigeria, Morocco, Malawi, Ghana, Eswatini (former Swaziland) and Zambia) some of them are already ahead of others in the process. This is the case, for example, of Lesotho which, the report points out, "has been a pioneer, establishing itself as the first to regulate cannabis for medical use as early as 2008. Ten years later, Zimbabwe followed suit, legalizing its cultivation, before South Africa authorized, in September of the same year, private consumption between adults."

However, for a continent that already produces 38,000 tons of cannabis per year, without benefiting from the added value of its commercialization, it is important to look at the economic potential of such a plant in order to consider prospects. To this end, while for the Moroccan Khalid Tinasti, executive secretary of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the deadline remains difficult to meet, the authors of the report estimate for their part that "for medical or recreational use, there is necessarily a potential on this market of 1.2 billion people."

According to the think tank, "by creating an industry, the legalization of the cannabis trade could provide an answer to the lack of work to offer a youth whose importance will continue to increase greatly in the years to come." Indeed, according to Shaun Shelly, a researcher specializing in drug policies at the University of Pretoria, "cannabis is easily cultivated and requires few nutrients, which allows it to contribute to the economic development of areas with few resources and poor agricultural prospects."

Since the WHO has already suggested removing cannabis from the category of substances with "particularly dangerous properties" of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, its medical efficacy in alleviating pain is no longer to be demonstrated, according to the study group. Its commercialization could maintain a market that Prohibition Partners estimates at $800 million (710 million euros) as early as 2023, when recreational cannabis would, still according to the report, represent a windfall of $6.3 billion (5.6 billion euros) for the continent if the nine countries mentioned legalized their production within the next four years.