00:00The launch to start officially licensing the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes
00:07follows the passing of a law last year.
00:10Possession and use of cannabis is currently illegal in Ghana with jail terms of around 10 years if one is
00:18caught.
00:19The licensing regime would now allow for the controlled cultivation of cannabis with limited tetrahydrocannabinol THC content.
00:30THC is the psychoactive component of cannabis.
00:35The Interior Minister Muntaka Mubarak told journalists today that the country is not changing its position of use of cannabis.
00:47We are creating a world-class Ghanaian controlled industrial health and therapeutic cannabis sector
00:55that will compete with the likes of Canada, the United States of America and Germany
01:03while protecting public health and national security.
01:06Under this new scheme, the country is introducing 11 different licensing schemes
01:13to regulate, among other things, the researching, the growing and the transportation of cannabis.
01:21Ghana is a heavily religious and conservative country with many having the view that
01:27loose control mechanisms may bring its own problems.
01:31Whether the government licenses it or not, some people think it's useful to them.
01:37Now that it is going to be licensed to be legally used, someone might have it and tell you I'm
01:43going to use it for medicinal purpose.
01:45Despite attempts by several African countries to remove legal barriers around the use and handling of cannabis,
01:51South Africa remains the only country on the continent to have fully legalized the use of cannabis among adults.
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