Tag: ghana

Ghana recently became the latest country to pass a national medical cannabis legalization measure. The African nation’s parliament approved the ‘Narcotics Control Commission Bill, 2023’ mere days ago. The measure tasks Ghana’s Ministry of Interior with issuing cannabis cultivation licenses.

In 2020, Ghana’s parliament passed a measure authorizing the production of low-THC cannabis for medical and research purposes. However, the nation’s Supreme Court later deemed the measure to be unconstitutional, and as a result, kept prohibition in place. The measure that was approved in recent days in Ghana seemed to directly address the reported legal insufficiencies.

Ghana’s economy currently ranks 10th among African nations, however, it ranks 74th globally. The average salary in Ghana is roughly 60,340 GHS, which converts to about 5,292 USD. Needless to say, a robust, thriving medical cannabis industry would greatly benefit the citizens of Ghana via a boost in economic development and job creation.

The economic benefit to Ghana comes in addition to the wellness benefits that will be afforded to suffering patients under the new law. As is the case in every country, Ghana is home to countless suffering patients that could benefit from cannabis therapies.

The new law will not result in every suffering patient receiving safe access, however, it will be a welcomed policy change for the suffering patients that are able to be helped by the recently approved measure.

The African nation joins a growing list of other countries on the continent such as Morocco and South Africa that have taken steps to modernize their medical cannabis policies. No country in Africa has a medical cannabis policy as robust and progressive as can be found in North America, including Ghana, however, the continent is at least trending in the right direction at a macro level.

Africa is still home to some of the strictest cannabis policies on earth, and international cannabis observers need to be mindful of that fact. What African nations such as Ghana are implementing may not be the best medical cannabis policies at the global level, however, they are considerably better than outright prohibition.

Ghana is one of several countries on the African continent that is working towards making a meaningful impact in the emerging global cannabis industry.

In 2020 policymakers in Ghana passed the ‘Narcotic Control Commission Act’ which, among other things, created a process by which entities could obtain licenses to cultivate low-THC cannabis for industrial and medical use.

The measure was far from revolutionary, in that low-THC cannabis is already cultivated for industrial and medical use in a growing number of countries around the world. Thailand, for instance, allows any household in the country to obtain government permission to cultivate low-THC cannabis.

With that in mind, it was very defeating when Ghana’s Supreme Court recently deemed the new licensing process in Ghana to be unconstitutional. Per Ghana Web, the decision seemed to hinge on a procedural technicality.

Ghana’s Constitution was implemented in 1992 and stipulates that any measure that is passed by a committee must also go to Parliament for full debate and passage before coming into law.

It’s nuanced, but four out of seven justices apparently felt that the licensing process gave too much decision-making power to the newly formed Commission and Minister, with the three remaining justices dissenting.

It was a very close decision, decided by only one vote, and given the fact that cannabis is not going anywhere, it’s very likely that this isn’t the last chapter in this licensing saga in Ghana.