ASSISTANCE AVAILED FOR CANNABIS GROWERS

MBABANE – Cannabis growers will now have assistance obtaining permits to grow the herb.

The Eswatini Cannabis Association, a non-profit organisation, had its launch at the Mountain Inn conference hall yesterday.

The infant organisation was founded on February 7, 2019, at eMfuleni Lifestyle in Ezulwini. The organisation’s administrator, Trevor Shongwe, said they were pleased to see the day the association was introduced to emaSwati, to farmers, to businessmen who wanted to invest in the industry, to chiefs and traditional healers.

The Chairman of the Association, Saladin Magagula, said that they felt that emaSwati had to come together to form an association as the world was moving towards this industry and countries around Eswatini were also moving towards the cannabis industry. 

Platform

“We felt it was time we spoke on a national platform, and not just in the regions. We thought it was time that emaSwati looked at this very important industry. We are grateful to the 11th Parliament for putting this in the public domain for open discussion,” Magagula said.

He said since the common interest was to promote the cannabis industry in Eswatini, the initial focus of the organisation was to lobby the government to keep the industry local and primarily owned by its citizens.

He added that the association was set to assist members in all the aspects of the cannabis market, to collect and distribute factual information. The interim committee had 15 members but only seven were in attendance at the launch.

Shongwe said the association had submitted its registration forms to the Registrar of Companies a month ago and had still have not received any news.
He said the resistance they had faced as an association came from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade but they had given them a month to see if they would respond by issuing them a licence or deny their application.

Shongwe said if they were denied the registration, they would take the matter to court as they would be owed a valid list of reasons as to why their registration was rejected.

Dan Dlamini, a member of the committee, mentioned how government was rushing to regulate the industry before consulting the people within the industry itself. He said if government would open up a platform to discuss the policies, it would be able to regulate what the nation needed as opposed to what they thought was required.

Addicts

When asked about the spill-over effects of legalising cannabis would have on the people as a whole since the country already had a number of addicts, Jabulane Shabangu, another member of the committee, spoke about the empirical data that came from the countries that had legalised cannabis.
“The State of Colorado in the United States of America legalised cannabis. They have found that the number of abusers and smokers decreased over time. The governing of its consumption helped take care of a problem they had for a long time. We have hope that the same will be the case in Eswatini,” Dlamini said.

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