The Senate Health Committee said it will hold a conference of psychologists, psychiatrists and economists to establish the economic value of bhang and its effects on consumers’ health.
Writer and political analyst Gwada Ogot argues that bhang can treat up to 677 medical conditions.
Many governments around the world, including the United States, have recently been reviewing their stand on bhang consumption.
Parliament yesterday made the unprecedented decision to seek expert views on the medical and commercial value of bhang, bringing closer to home an issue that has over the years dogged many governments around the globe but without much clarity.
The Senate Health Committee said it will hold a conference of psychologists, psychiatrists and economists to establish the economic value of bhang and its effects on consumers’ health.
The committee made the decision in response to a petition by researcher, writer and political analyst Gwada Ogot, who wants the consumption of the plant – commonly known as ‘weed or marijuana’ – legalised for medicinal and industrial use.
Mr Ogot argues that bhang can treat up to 677 medical conditions and that listing it among narcotic drugs in Kenya is based on ignorance.
Senate Health Committee chairman Wilfred Machage said the team would organise a conference of eminent experts, including economists, psychologists and psychiatrists to share views on the commercial and medical value of bhang as well as its connection or lack thereof to crime.
Many governments around the world, including the United States, have recently been reviewing their stand on bhang consumption leading to its winning of legal status in some countries.
Supporters of bhang consumption have argued that affording it legal status has produced huge economic benefits, including contribution to tax revenues and saving criminal justice costs.
In the US for instance, four states have legalized sale and consumption of marijuana while Germany and Canada are in the process of decriminalisation of the drug.
Mr Ogot says prohibition on bhang consumption is to blame for its criminalisation and that if legalised, it can become one of Kenya’s cash crops and support thousands of grower families.
“We have been massively misled about marijuana yet it has great medicinal and commercial value,” Mr Ogot told the committee when he appeared to defend his petition.
Israel, the Netherlands and Philippines are among countries that moved to legalise use of marijuana for medical use.
Mr Ogot argued that the ban of marijuana had been preceded by greed and racism intended to satisfy a few selfish individuals recommends that people serving jail sentences either for possession, cultivation, transportation, sale or use of the plant be immediately released from prison.
“Criminalising cannabis creates criminals where none existed,” he said.
Section 3 (2) (a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act lists the drug as a banned substance. Possession and use of which is a criminal offence.
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