Namibia’s continued ban on industrial hemp is shutting out farmers and entrepreneurs from a probably profitable and sustainable sector, hashish reform advocates say, warning that outdated drug legal guidelines are undermining financial and rural improvement.
“Banning the cultivation of hemp contradicts the federal government’s said financial transformation objectives and violates the appropriate to work and profit from the nation’s pure sources,” a coalition of teams mentioned in a latest advocacy assertion submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations. They argue that the ban perpetuates financial exclusion and stalls job creation in farming, manufacturing and development.
Blanket ban
“Unusual residents are barred from taking part within the hemp and hashish financial system, whereas firms promote cannabis-infused merchandise with authorized impunity,” the doc states. Whereas hashish prohibition is blanket in nature, guidelines permit prescription dronabinol, an artificial model of THC used to deal with nausea in most cancers sufferers and stimulate urge for food in HIV/AIDS victims, though the drug will not be broadly accessible.
Industrial hemp is prohibited below the identical authorized framework that in any other case bans marijuana, regardless of world shifts in regulation and the crop’s confirmed financial potential.
Namibian agriculture
Namibia’s agricultural sector accounts for about 7% of GDP and helps almost 70% of the inhabitants both instantly or not directly, notably in rural areas. Most farms are small to medium-sized and concentrate on livestock, millet, sorghum, maize, and horticulture. The arid local weather and expansive land availability current appropriate situations for industrial hemp farming.
Advocates say hemp might diversify Namibia’s agriculture and add worth by way of such outputs as biocomposites, textiles, inexperienced development supplies, and sustainable packaging. “It’s a missed alternative for inclusive improvement,” mentioned one member of the coalition, which incorporates the Hashish and Hemp Affiliation of Namibia, Ganja Customers of Namibia, Medical Marijuana Affiliation of Namibia and the Rastafari United Entrance.
Marijuana nonetheless criminalized
Namibia maintains strict prohibition of marijuana below the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971. Possession, cultivation, or sale of hashish can lead to jail sentences starting from 20 to 40 years and stiff fines.
The Ministry of Well being has explicitly rejected proposals for industrial medical hashish cultivation, regardless of rising proof of its therapeutic worth and world medical acceptance.
The joint advocacy submission is available in response to the federal government’s name for public enter on out of date and discriminatory laws. The teams argue Namibia’s hashish legal guidelines, rooted in apartheid-era coverage, violate a number of constitutional rights together with liberty, dignity, privateness, and financial freedom. They’re urging the federal government to decriminalize hashish, take away it from managed substances lists, and implement a moratorium on prosecutions.
“Namibia can’t declare to be a contemporary democracy whereas nonetheless imposing apartheid-era hashish legal guidelines,” the assertion reads.
