Ghana to guard against abuse of cannabis production permit

The Narcotics Control Commission is committed to ensuring that the processes for legalizing the cultivation of Indian Hemp (weed) in Ghana do not provide grounds for abuse, the Head of Communications and Media Relations at the Commission, Mr. Francis Opoku Amoah has told Dennislaw News.

President Akufo-Addo assented the Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020 (Act 1019) in May 2020. This enabled Ghana to join some other African countries that have permitted the cultivation and export of cannabis, albeit not for recreational purposes.

Mr. Amoah told Dennislaw News that Ghana’s move to legalize cannabis is in fulfillment of Section 43 of the new Narcotics Control Commission Act, 2020, which states that “the Minister in consultation with the Commission may grant a license to a person to cultivate [cannabis] and is not just any ordinary recreational weed.”

He explained that the cultivation of cannabis would only be for industrial and medicinal purposes, per the law, instead of offering an opportunity for people to get high.

“The law states that the THC level or content should be 0.3% of that active ingredient. That is what the law permits and that is what the Commission is working on to make sure that we get a regulation in place that will make sure that when that LI is passed, people who will want to secure a license will do that in the right way, in a legal way, and will go ahead and cultivate,” Mr. Amoah explained.

To check against abuse by some persons, the Communications boss of the Commission noted that the Legislative Instrument that will be placed before parliament would necessarily “stipulate in details, what somebody can do, what somebody cannot do and the checks and balances, and the measures for monitoring and evaluating people who are into it.”

Other African countries that have taken action towards legalizing cannabis include South Africa, which submitted the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill of 2020; Malawi, which approved the Cannabis Regulation Bill of 2020; and Uganda who has reported to the International Narcotics Control Board that it has instituted steps to permit individuals to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes.

The LI to ensure that only 0.3% THC content of cannabis is produced, has yet to be placed before Ghana’s Parliament.