Sober up and do what is right by legalising bhang

Police officers attached to Kisii Police station uproot some of the bhang planted by unknown people in a compound on 3/5/2020. [Sammy Omingo,Standard]

The mention of Cannabis Sativa (bhang or marijuana) in any social place elicits condemnation, guilt or anxiety. It is a paradoxical, if not hypocritical reaction and attitude to a crop whose consumption, demand, and supply have grown exponentially. 

However, this is understandable because the ‘herb’, until the 20th century, was widely accepted and consumed within unwritten cultural codes. In Kenya, it was outlawed by the British colonialists about 70 years ago. Why the cultivation and consumption of marijuana was banned has never been critically examined.

The colonial wisdom, or lack of it that criminalised bhang, was unilateral and never appreciated the fact that it had been consumed for centuries without known dire effects.

This criminalisation did not deter its consumption, but rather drove it underground where it has continued to thrive with traffickers, dealers, and cartels making billions of shillings from its trade across the world.

Police officers arrest a man who was busted in Baharini area, Eldoret, ferrying bhang during the government imposed 7pm to 5am curfew. The man had bundled over 70 stones of bhang on 28/3/2020. [Kevin Tunoi, Standard]

And nowhere is this more pervasive and destructive than in Latin America. There, the drug lords who have diversified and enhanced production to other forms, have for ages targeted a ready US market.

The US government, after realising the futility of using the gun and barrel to stop the lucrative trade, has changed tact and embraced the medical and recreational benefits of marijuana and reviewed its legal status.

Its decriminalisation in several US states has engineered a paradigm shift with investments flowing in to tap its benefit; medical, recreational and economic.

Already, 10 countries led by the US and Canada have reviewed the legal status of marijuana or legalised its use for all purposes, with others allowing medical use of bhang. Closer home, Malawi, a major producer of marijuana, has, to a large extent, legalised its use.

Others, including South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and Uganda, have taken bold baby steps to harness the new “green gold”, which, according to a Barclays Bank study, has a global market estimated at $150 billion and is tipped to hit $270 billion by 2028.

This is the progressive approach that Kenya needs to take before it is swept off its feet and overwhelmed by the global wave to review the legal status of Cannabis Sativa to, especially, harness its medical benefits with the growing cancer burden in the country.

The government should take advantage of the private members’ Bill I championed in my time as Nyamira Senator. I was condemned by many without letting the health debate run its course.

Though I tried to get the reasoning of the naysayers, which I believe was largely informed by the colonial myths and negative narratives, I did a tactical retreat. However, the issue cannot be tossed under the carpet.

Suspects sit next to their bags of bhang at the DCI. The bhang was being ferried from Northern Kenya and was intercepted by police officers on the Isiolo-Moyale route destined for Nairobi on November 14, 2020. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

It has again resurfaced in the House, and hopefully, the legislators and country’s leaders  will accept its reality now that there is a feverish push to reboot the country’s socio-economic and political software through the Building Bridges Initiative.

It is ill-informed and unfortunate to continue behaving like the proverbial ostrich and keep burying our heads in the sand. We must, as a country,  embrace the benefits of decriminalising bhang and treat it as one of our God-bestowed natural resources and tap it.

We must as a matter of urgency legalise this crop to contribute to our economic growth as it will contribute to the diversification of the economy and boost the country’s exports, especially at this time when the fortunes of tea, coffee, tourism and other sectors have been damped by the global economic dynamics and the vile coronavirus pandemic.

I am ready to join hands with other progressive voices to lobby for the establishment of a cannabis regulatory authority to kick-start the journey to harnessing the benefits of the crop by granting licences, cultivating, storing, selling, exporting and distributing through a legislated process. I hope the same attitude and sober discourse on the benefits of miraa will prevail.

This will not only pave way for commercialisation, but spur scientific research on this crop, which has, unfortunately, been maligned for decades but is widely used for medical, commercial, recreational and religious purposes.

And the longer we fail to wake up and smell the coffee, the more we fail to reap the benefits of marijuana. But most tragic is the lie that we can fight this trade that thrives underground, benefiting the insidious, vicious cartels and rogue State officers.

We must see and embrace the bigger picture; legalise exploitation of the crop to attract investments and change attitudes to it besides harnessing its immediate medical benefits.

Mr Mong’are is director Carewell Society and former Nyamira Senator