On the front page of Ghana’s leading entertainment newspaper, the Graphic Showbiz, reads the cover story, Musicians face 10 year jail term if they promote drugs.  The article starts by explaining that “neatly tucked among the law books is PNDCL 236 Narcotic Drug Law, 1990, which says that no person should…undertake any activity for the purpose of establishing or promoting any enterprise relating to narcotic drugs.”   In total disregard for the higher overstanding that has come from years of research, distinguishing the marijuana plant from narcotic drugs, Ghana’s lawmakers went on to emphasize their point by stating that “….unlike some countries where musicians such as Bob Marley and Peter Tosh promoted marijuana in their songs and have gone scot-free, Ghana has a law which prohibits the promotion of narcotic drugs.”  Furthermore, punishment for 'promoting' herb attracts the same judgment as one will receive if caught with an ounce of herb or even a spliff, 10 years! 

Someone once said that the catholics are more catholic than the pope.  In blind ignorance, Ghana, like so many other African states have purchased, wholesale, every bit of negative propaganda about the Hemp plant and even more effectively, distributed it to the masses via the churches that litter every square mile of our beautiful landscape.  Not even the elitist who have benefited from higher educations in the Oxfords and Harvards of the world care to enlighten the masses about the true characteristics of the Hemp plant, instead they probably just do the ‘Bill Clinton’ in the privacy of their board rooms.

For the sake of our indigenous Africans in Ghana and throughout the continent, who haven’t been exposed to countless literature and medical journals that herald the Hemp plant, I will quote a passage that clearly states the truth that your politicians and lawmakers conceal, as to the real reason why so much energy is wasted criminalizing this God-given plant. 

“The reason the Weed is outlawed is only ostensibly about health.  The truth is the Weed is no more addictive and no more a health risk than cigarettes or alcohol, both of which are protected by the law.  Why is it then not allowed? Because if it were grown, half the cotton growers, nylon and rayon manufacturers, and timber products people in the world would go out of business.  Hemp happens to be one of the most useful, strongest, toughest, longest lasting materials on the planet.  You cannot produce better fiber for clothes, a stronger substance for ropes, an easier-to-grow-and-harvest source for pulp.  Instead we cut down hundreds of thousands of trees per year to give ourselves Sunday papers, so that we can read about the decimation of the world’s forest.  Hemp could provide us with millions of Sunday papers without cutting down one tree.  Indeed, it could substitute for so many resource materials, at one-tenth the cost.  And that is the catch.  Somebody loses money if this miraculous plant, which also has extraordinary medicinal properties, incidentally is allowed to be grown.  That is why marijuana is illegal in your country.”

For those of you who dispute this claim, you are on the internet, do your own research.  For those of you who are offended, get over it.  Think about the waste in tax money allocated to feeding imprisoned persons for fabricated crimes and the potential benefits to your economy if you should ever really stand up to your colonizers and tell them that you reserve the right to protect your interest and those of the people of this wonderful nation, thus employing their own findings, you will begin in earnest to grow Hemp and manufacture its products in Ghana. 

No longer will the vast majority of Ghana’s population be compelled to purchase inferior, second hand clothing from the west, no longer will we continue to deplete our forests of its dwindling trees and no longer will our limited resources be spent in pursuit of non-criminals in order to protect the real criminals.  These vandals of propaganda introduce every chemical (drug) possible into our environment in the form of lightening crèmes, pesticides and genetically modified foods, all of which are banned in their countries, yet you willingly allow them to be sold to us, to our greatest detriment.  I plead, on behalf of the peoples of Ghana and Africa, wake from your slumber and your 10% deals that will eventually cut into the life-span of your grandchildren, not to mention the ten years you propose taking from the lives of young black men and women who already have it hard enough surviving in this H.I.P.C. (Highly Indebted Poor Country) environment that your management has found us in today.  Update your laws (as did all of Europe, America and every modern, progressive country of the world today) to reflect the difference between the Hemp plant and narcotic drugs and stop criminalizing our youth!

Prince: lionsden2ghana2@yahoo.com

Update: A Mafia style consortium made up of a British, German, American and Ghanaian were arrested and charged for trafficking 600 kilos of cocaine.  They each received 20 years hard labor.  Therefore, in Ghana, if you are caught with a spliff, a kite, it is only half as bad as smuggling 600 kilos of cocaine.

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