As South Africa Legalises Private Marijuana use, Should Nigeria Follow Suit?

The South African constitutional court has on Tuesday, 18th September 2018, legalized the use of cannabis in private space because laws against it were inconsistent with the country’s constitution. According to the Judge who delivered the judgement, Raymond Zondo, “It will not be a criminal offence for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in private space”. The judgement, however, did not say how much cannabis one may have at home for private use and dealing marijuana, selling it on to others or smoking it outside the confines of your own home remains an illegal practice.

In Nigeria, Marijuana is still illegal and punishable by a 12 years minimum sentence even though the country is a major source of West African-grown cannabis, and ranked world’s eight highest consumer of cannabis. Cannabis is widely grown across many states in Nigeria including Ondo, Edo, Ekiti, Delta, Osun, Oyo and Ogun states.

It is to be recalled that 2019 Nigerian Presidential Aspirant, Omoyele Sowere, at a press conference urged Nigerians to start taking the production and exportation of weed (Marijuana) seriously. According to him, it would help Nigeria contribute to the GDP of the world since some of the finest weed in the world is grown in Nigeria. He further added that people are making billions from the sale of weed, it would be beneficial to Nigerians since weed is a very potent plant in Nigeria.

In a country where alcohol and tobacco are legal, one begins to wonder why cannabis is not as they all belong to the same family. Legal or not, Nigeria is still one of the highest consumers of cannabis. So why not legalise and export it so it can contribute significantly to the nation’s GDP?