Cannabis: From bad to good

When the news broke that the Ondo State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu went to Thailand with the Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Colonel Muhammad Abdullah (rtd.) to study how Cannabis (also known as marijuana/Indian hemp) can be put to good use, it marked a turning point in the discussion about the herb in the nation.

The programme they went to study was: “Medicinal Cannabis Extract Development.” The story actually divided the nation into the for and against camps, as people weighed in on the issue.

Some people, in a knee jerk reaction lampooned the governor for even thinking of such a thing. They think the idea will become a slippery slope and we would be in danger of having everyone getting high on the streets and the psychiatric hospital would become overwhelmed as a great number of people lose their minds to the free accessibility of the narcotic on the street. In their minds, what the governor is talking about is akin to legalising the wide use of the illicit herb by all who want to smoke it.

The ‘bad’ of cannabis is the basis for the legal framework mandating the curtailing of the cultivation and use of the substance because of its psychedelic (mind altering) effect. This necessitated the establishment NDLEA, which has been at the forefront of the fight against the cultivation and the distribution of the narcotics.

Ondo State is known as the largest cannabis producer in Nigeria, and NDLEA has been in a running battle with cultivators, sometimes leading to loss of lives of its officers.

But in the wake of the Ondo State Governor’s visit to Thailand, many positives have been brought to the fore about cannabis, specifically about the health benefits of cannabis oil, and its economic potentials. And the government is saying that with a controlled cultivation of a special strain of cannabis, specifically for the oil, the country would be tapping into a gold mine.

Scholars from the Adekunle Ajasin University, Fadero Oluwafemi and Olaseyo Toyosi, in a write-up said that Marijuana for many years was harvested primarily for its strong fibres employed in the production of pots, ropes, cloths, bags, ship sails, bread. Other uses include as a renewable energy carrier production and consumption, its biomass as source of energy, as biogas substate, as bioethanol substrate. This is apart from the many possible health benefits.

Information from government sources reveal that there are companies that are lined up, ready to set up factories where cannabis oil will be extracted, taping into its multi-billion dollars global market.

The economics of the new proposal which would necessitate the ending of the wholesale vilification of the product came to the fore when senior officials of Nigeria Prisons Service paid a visit to Governor Akeredolu.

They were on a five-day study tour of Ondo State, with the theme: “Commercial cannabis growing in Ondo State: A panacea for ecnomic emancipation from over dependence on federal allocation.”

They were informed during their training that cannabis have benefits in 71 chronic ailments and would go a long way to reduce dependence on oil as a source of foreign exchange for the country.

The leader of the 28-man group, Acting Assistant Controller General of Nigeria Prisons, Mr. Benson Oluwayiopese said: “We were told in this training that it should be restricted as it was done in Thailand. It must not be grown widely, but restricted. We were also made to understand that in Thailand, the type of cannabis the state Government advocates is not the type of marijuana that causes mental derailment.

“We were told that a litre of cannabis oil goes for thousands of dollars. I just want to advice that if government can buy into the idea, it would move the economy forward.”

Source: https://citadelng.com/cannabis-from-bad-to-good/

I have my fears: if government cannot manage water and oil well is it cannabis? seeing mad fellows on ondo streets soon.