Tanzania legislator Jumanne Kishimba, wants the government to legalize the use of Marijuana for medicinal purposes. Speaking in parliament on Monday, he pointed out that four African countries have legalised marijuana cultivation for medicinal purposes and that it will be beneficial if Tanzania took advantage of this opportunity when it still golden.
“Uganda has legalised the growth of Cannabis for therapeutic purposes according to the recent news report. Up to 80% of medicine used to alleviate pain in cancer patients is from Marijuana. I wonder why our food and drugs agency could have taken samples of the drugs with Marijuana and inform us and we could have asked those suppliers where they get it from. Truth is we have bhang and what we see is security officers destroying it every day, yet it was being used into manufacturing human medicine,” he told the parliament.
He pointed out that Lesotho and Zimbabwe have already legalised bang and he has been to one of the factories manufacturing human medicine with bhang. According to Jumanne, one sack of bhang fetches Sh4 to Sh4.5 Million in Tanzania while the same quantity is sold at Sh 20 Million in Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
“All this goes into human drugs which are then sold to us. The government should license and legalise the growth of marijuana cultivation so we can make profits from it. Is prudent, Ministry of health and ministry of agriculture to come to term with the operations. Marijuana cannot be destroyed by pests and from one acre, you can harvest six sacks of marijuana. Ministry of Agriculture should be thinking contract farming of the crop,” he pointed out.
