cannabisnews.com: West Africa's Cash Crop










  West Africa's Cash Crop

Posted by CN Staff on January 05, 2004 at 07:58:23 PT
By G. Pascal Zachary, AlterNet 
Source: AlterNet 

What if a poor African country could grow a plant that would fetch healthy prices in the U.S? What if the plant could be grown on small farms, encouraging democracy in this poor African country by putting cash into the hands of its poorest and most powerless people? What if such a plant could reduce the poor African country's dependence on the U.S. for aid? Of course, the U.S. would cheer such a plant and the country that grows it. And President George Bush would be especially glad, since improving living standards in Africa is one of his key global objectives. 
Such a plant does exist, and an African country is growing it in good measure. Yet President Bush isn't cheering. Worse, the Bush administration is fighting a war against the plant and the poor African country that grows it. The country is Ghana, in West Africa, and the plant is cannabis or "ganja," the term preferred by Ghanaians. Marijuana grown in Ghana is of good quality, plentiful and relatively inexpensive. Twenty neatly rolled sticks of pot, or about half an ounce, sell for about $3. That's right, good pot sells for $6 an ounce in Ghana. Here is the highest stage of capitalism – the free market – in action. Ghana is one of the most peaceful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The country rarely sees any violence (a benefit of pot-smoking?), has a democratically elected government and boasts one of the freest societies in Africa. Pot has been grown and smoked in the country for decades, drawing little comment. In Accra, the coastal capital of Ghana, people smoke discreetly, to be sure, because the sale and possession of pot is technically illegal. But pot is easy to purchase, arrests are rare, and smoking is popular, especially among American and European aid workers in the country. For pot smokers, Accra is an African paradise. But like many a paradise in Africa, Accra is threatened by a man-made disaster. The disaster, funded by American tax dollars, is the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). I am no expert in the world's drug wars, or the DEA, but I spent the better part of the past two years in Ghana and I never saw any signs of pot ripping apart the fabric of Ghanaian life. There are no drug lords in Accra, no gun-toting bodyguards or pot addicts strewn across the city's derelict roads. Just the opposite is occurring, actually. Pot is giving a people starved for economic opportunity a chance to participate in the global economy. Ghana is one of the losers in the world's experiment with widening trade. Goods flood into Ghana from China, Brazil, Mexico, even the U.S. And not just manufactured products either. Butter is imported from France, pasta and canned tomatoes from Italy, rolled oats from Germany and rice from the U.S. Because the cost of producing and shipping these foods is subsidized by European, U.S. and Canadian governments, their cost in Ghana is sometimes less than it is in the country of origin. And even if it isn't, these imports ruin the lives of African food producers. American rice, imported into Ghana, sells for substantially less than rice grown in Ghana. The burden of food imports would be less crushing if Ghana exported an equal amount of goods, but the country doesn't. It hardly exports anything. The country's two leading exports are cacao beans (the basic ingredient in cocoa and chocolate) and gold. These exports are the foundation of Ghana's economy – today and 100 years ago. Ghana has low farm costs, making it an attractive place (in theory) to grow fruits and vegetables. But because of deplorable "feeder" roads to Ghana's cities and ports, roughly one-third to one-half of the country's crop of delicious pineapples rots before reaching market. Nearly as many of Ghana's plentiful bananas suffer the same fate. Marijuana has a longer shelf life. For poor Ghana, it offers a lifeline to a more diverse and durable economic future. To achieve this does not require a revolution in world drug laws either. European countries have eased their restrictions on marijuana, creating a chance for African growers to tap the huge market in cities such as Amsterdam, Stockholm and Copenhagen. After all, West Africa is a short hop by sea or plane to Western Europe, giving Africans an edge over producers elsewhere in the world. Simply, then, by sticking to the gray area of the world's fuzzy pot laws, Ghana could reap substantial benefits. Instead, the U.S. insists that Ghana buy American rice and yet refuses to allow its citizens to purchase Ghana's marijuana. Whatever the arrangement is, it is not free trade. To add to the injury, the Bush administration wants to fuel a drug war in Ghana, where pot exporters are so sophisticated and nefarious that their preferred method of transporting weed is to hide it in shipments of yams bound for Europe. Against this menace stands the DEA. About six months ago, the agency privately persuaded the government of Ghana to accept its advice and mount a campaign of resistance against pot production and distribution. The DEA offered the carrot of "technical assistance" – jargon in foreign-aid speak for equipment and cash that African police, who are woefully underpaid, long for. For now the DEA-inspired move against Ghana's pot growers has resulted in publicized destruction of fields, some arrests – and more aid for Ghana from a grateful U.S. government. G. Pascal Zachary served in 2003 as Ghana director for Journalists for Human Rights, a media training group based in Toronto. URL: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17483Newshawk: KeganSource: AlterNet (US)Author: G. Pascal Zachary, AlterNetPublished: January 04, 2004Copyright: 2004 Independent Media InstituteContact: letters alternet.org Website: http://www.alternet.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml

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Comment #15 posted by FoM on January 05, 2004 at 15:01:06 PT
Jose
I'd appreciate it if you stopped posting so many links. Please just join in the conversation. 
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Comment #14 posted by jose melendez on January 05, 2004 at 14:24:42 PT
perhaps I misunderstood
I thought the specific question was:'What natural plant product', not What native plant product perhaps I should have guessed, Papaver somniferum seeds and gum?
What Congress Ignores
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Comment #13 posted by NoahTao on January 05, 2004 at 14:10:43 PT:
Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics
Greetings Dr. Russo. I wanted to ask you where i might be able to purchace the complete set of the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics. I have the 2nd? edition that i recieved at the NORML conference. If you could provide me a link it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again for your hard work and bravery.
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Comment #12 posted by Max Flowers on January 05, 2004 at 13:45:04 PT
Ghana Gold
I'll keep my comment on this one positive and brief:DANG, I'd like to try some of that Ghanan!! I'll bet it's cerebral as all get-out! Maybe someday...
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Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on January 05, 2004 at 13:05:26 PT
The poppy is not native to Afghanistan
Cannabis is native to Afghanistan. Hashish is a native Afghan tradition.In fact, cannabis is believed to have first evolved in the region around Afghanistan.
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Comment #10 posted by jose melendez on January 05, 2004 at 12:35:35 PT
asked and answered
"What natural plant product does Afghanistan produce from its own native soil that could be traded to the rest of the world for cash?"another answer: the poppy
school hit squads
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on January 05, 2004 at 11:45:08 PT
Hashish could save Afghanistan
What natural plant product does Afghanistan produce from its own native soil that could be traded to the rest of the world for cash?
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Comment #8 posted by CorvallisEric on January 05, 2004 at 10:46:08 PT
Meanwhile from Jamaica via London via Trinidad
"The Catholic Church, the Council of Churches, the Medical Association of Jamaica, the legal fraternity-in our meetings across the country with various stakeholders there was an overwhelming support for the use of marijuana in your private space, in your home, of small quantities for your own use; for smoking, for medicinal use, because of the imbedded cultural practices that we have in Jamaica," says Anthony Freckleton, who served on the body.But not even support from the Church can persuade the Jamaican government to take such a big step and cross Uncle Sam.from "Buju's troubles with 'Babylon' & gangja": 
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article?id=2451120
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Comment #7 posted by CorvallisEric on January 05, 2004 at 10:22:01 PT
Sam Adams - comment 2
I read a recent article in Forbes magazine saying that once the baby boomers start hitting retirement, the US government will have its biggest fiscal crisis ever. This is supposed to begin in 5 years!This very obvious problem also has a very obvious solution - immigration. The floodgates will be opened and the current opposition will by silenced by dire economic necessity. We can either plan for a new diverse, non-Anglo and youthful America or be overwhelmed by it. How it will affect the WOD, I have no idea.
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Comment #6 posted by Virgil on January 05, 2004 at 09:42:19 PT
SGD- Inverting the inverted
Nixon had cannabis placed on the Schedule 1 narcotics list and then sought research to find its correct placement, only he did not want it moved from Schedule 1. The research that lead to the first wave of state programs in the 1970's would be buried so that we might now have the revisioned history we are presented with the relentless lies of propaganda.As the inversion of a reasoned world brought us to the upside down we now see, the question we are bombarded with is "What is the harm of laughing grass?" The proper question that we need answered is "What are the benefits of consuming laughting grass?" That is the important question before us, and where are the answers.I know it can end rage. You have physical and mental areas to explore and we have no answer. A trillion dollars shot all to hell and we do not have an answer. We have clues and certain studies, but where in one place do you find the benefits that come from using cannabis. Does it help with preventing cancer and would inverting the practice of putting tobacco in with weed to putting weed in with tobacco save lives. There are mental benefits that come to people using cannabis for AIDS that help the situation seem managable. The prohibitionists cannot handle the truth and we cannot tolerate the lies. It is a head-on collision coming between the upside down and those that would make it right. We have a great big bus of people heading towards the prohibitionists in their taxpayer funded car as they plot their next meal ticket. They keep crossing the line and one day there is going to be a collision that wipes their sorry butts off the planet.Tell me John Edwards, "What benefits come from using laughing grass?"
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Comment #5 posted by Virgil on January 05, 2004 at 08:58:44 PT
The solution and the cure
The real world has real problems. The AIDS epidemic is going to need Free Cannabis in solution. It is an unyielding force whose accumulated sick will have to have cannabis. South Africa is at the heart of the illumination here. Somehow, I think India is the brain of the illumination. We do not here much of the AIDS problem in India, but as they will manufacture cheap AIDS medicines and have an ancient culture of cannabis use, why would cannabis not be advanced as remedy to problems related to AIDS and the medicines required to sustain life?That is what makes CP impossible to defend. It is the solution to real problems and we are led to believe there are no problems worse than devil weed and then we are told that even if they were cannabis is not needed.I have taken up looking to the Russian Pravda online- http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/ news for gaining perspective and facts. Russia does not arrest people for possession which lifts the lid on all the secrecy that we see here in the states and even on this board itself.The article just yesterday spoke to the problem of a declining population that could be 25% in 50 years. The article- http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/351/11459_population.html - says the solution is to have more children.Russia has a terrible problem with alcoholism and half of the adults smoke tobacco. The problem of not preventing preventable deaths is a matter of national security. The Asian part of Russia is losing population and the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Koreans are moving there- http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/88/351/11423_immigrants.html These two articles are up today and not some buried trivia. Russia has real problems and they have no hard line by a self-serving bureacracy to war on people that use cannabis. Cannabis is the solution to the alcohol problem that is killing the adults with training and education off. I am Virgil on the Pravda messageboards and this will be the first article I put up, and then I will turn on the switch to the light bulb and illuminate.This article is important because as real news flows from the Internet and the excellent Alternet here, people will follow the news upstream to its source and the whole dynamics of the controlled media will wither. Murdoch's flagship paper in the US is the New York Post and it hemorrages and would be shut down if it did not put him in good stead with the FCC that delivered DirectTV to his propaganda empire. The investors of the London Times said he was sacrificing profits and circulation for his agenda at their expense.There are real problems and cannabis is a solution. In this country we have a huge problem inflicted on us with Cannabis Prohibition. Free Cannabis For Everyone is the simple solution to that huge problem. It fits into the solution of treating AIDS. It fits into the problem of ending the Age of alcohol. Now I ask you, does the cream not always rise to the top?
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Comment #4 posted by SystemGoneDown on January 05, 2004 at 08:53:59 PT

Also, about the use of cannabis...
With all the anti-drug hoopla that we as Americans been raised to believe, I think the #1 use has been overlooked. It's the best anti-depressant. We've effectively demonized all drugs, so marijuana cannot be legitimatley viewed as an anti-depressant. However, if you read about people who don't get better through prozac, ritalin, etc. etc. Their only real cure for their spirit is marijuana. It's a spiritual healing. But here in America where judgements rule, nobody can see that.
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Comment #3 posted by SystemGoneDown on January 05, 2004 at 08:48:43 PT

Prison Song
"Minor drug offenders fill your prisons,
you don't even flinch.
All our taxes paying for your Wars against the NEW NON-RICH.""Minor drug offenders fill your prisons,
you don't even flinch.
All our taxes paying for your Wars against the NEW NON-RICH."Is Ghana added to that list of "Non-rich"? Are they going to be added to the long list of poor countries who uses America's demand for illegal drugs as an economic boost? 
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on January 05, 2004 at 08:47:58 PT

Nice work Dr. Russo!
Eventually they'll come around! I read a recent article in Forbes magazine saying that once the baby boomers start hitting retirement, the US government will have its biggest fiscal crisis ever. This is supposed to begin in 5 years! The authors were two Bush Administration economists who were fired when their report prediced a $44 trillion deficit from this problem within 20 years.That's enough for every person in the US to buy 3 Hummer SUVs! The article's thesis stated that sometime in the next 5 years, the world's financial markets will wake up to this fact, and interest rates will soar. The feds will be forced to massively slash their budget to avoid bankrupting the United States. Maybe at that point, FINALLY, the WOD will be laid to rest. Now that the Canadian Supreme Court sold us out, I see this as our next big hope.

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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 05, 2004 at 08:36:16 PT

Cannabis In Africa-Reprise
An added element the author did not address is the potential for use of cannabis in treating the African pandemic of HIV/AIDS. I wrote about this in Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics 1(3-4) 2001, also released as a book, Cannabis Therapeutics in HIV/AIDS. Here's that section:
AIDS in the Third World: A Modest ProposalSince its discovery a mere two decades ago, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has quickly become one of the world’s most challenging public health issues. Initial cases in the USA and Europe mostly affected homosexual males and intravenous drug abusers, making it easy for those in some quarters to relegate AIDS to some expression of heavenly revenge for immoral behavior. This introduced a noteworthy roadblock into funding for research (see Werner’s article in this issue). When “innocent victims” such as transfusion recipients and babies with congenitally acquired infections appeared on the scene, public sentiments began to change. Soon enough, the disease proved to be a pandemic, and none was immune to its reach. It now affects 36 million people worldwide (Piot et al. 2001). The current spread of AIDS is greatest in the Third World, with 60% of total cases in Africa, affecting an estimated 8% of the adult population (Thomas 2001). Transmission is primarily through heterosexual sex and vertical transmission. Asia seems to be the next nidus for its spread, which has recently been termed “explosive” (Kilmarx et al. 2000).Treatment of AIDS remains extremely problematic, particularly in the Third World, due to the incredible expense of retroviral and newer protease-inhibitor drugs. These costs easily reach into the many thousands of dollars per patient per year.Benefits of cannabis on appetite have long been known, including early citations by da Orta in India in his 1563 book (da Orta 1913), and Owen in the USA (Owen 1860). Sir William Dixon (1899), a noted pharmacologist said of smoked cannabis (p. 1356), “It is not dangerous and its effects are never alarming, and I have come to regard it in this form as a useful and refreshing stimulant and food accessory, and one whose use does not lead to a habit which grows upon its votary.”The modern history of cannabis as an anti-anorexic and antiemetic is addressed in the current issue, along with two excellent reviews in the JCANT charter issue (Hollister 2001; Musty and Rossi 2001). Given the current support for this indication, and an overwhelming need for less expensive medicine to treat AIDS symptomatically until a cure is available, one might properly ask the question, “Why not cannabis?”International law governing “illicit drugs” is contained within the United Nations Single Convention Treaty on Narcotics (United Nations 1961, available online at: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/legal/singconv.htm Although international trade on cannabis is prohibited, existing provisions of the treaty allow for internal medical usage, or its abrogation in the event that the treaty contravenes a nation’s constitution or its expression of human rights. That would certainly seem to be the case with AIDS. Increasingly, this treaty has proven counter-productive to the public health, and a key promotional factor in the highly wasteful and ineffectual international “War on Drugs.” A modest proposal would call for its revocation, or at the very least, its amendment to allow for therapeutic cannabis usage as a stopgap effort in treatment of the worldwide AIDS epidemic. Referencesda Orta, Garcia. 1913. Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India. London: Henry Sotheran.Dixon, W.E. 1899. The pharmacology of Cannabis indica. Brit Med J 2:1354-1357.Hollister, L. E. 2001. Marijuana (cannabis) as medicine. J Cannabis Therap 1(1):5-27.Joy, J.E., S.J. Watson, and J.A. Benson, Jr. 1999. Marijuana and medicine: Assessing the science base. Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine.Kilmarx, P. H., S. Supawitkul, M. Wankrairoj, W. Uthaivoravit, K. Limpakarnjanarat, S. Saisorn, and T. D. Mastro. 2000. Explosive spread and effective control of human immunodeficiency virus in northernmost Thailand: The epidemic in Chiang Rai province, 1988-99. AIDS 14(17):2731-2740.Musty, R.E., and R. Rossi. 2001. Effects of smoked cannabis and oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on nausea and emesis after cancer chemotherapy: A review of state clinical trials. J Cannabis Therap 1(1):29-42.Owen, P.H. 1860. A description of Cannabis indica with an account of experiments in its use. NY Med Press 3:280-283.Piot, P., M. Bartos, P.D. Ghys, N. Walker, and B. Schwartlander. 2001. The global impact of HIV/AIDS. Nature 410(6831):968-973.Thomas, J.O. 2001. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome-Associated cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa. Semin Oncol 28(2):198-206.United Nations. 1961. Single Convention Treaty on Narcotics. New York.

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