Hidden deep inside the forest, without any discernible route, somewhere in the sleepy town of Ogotun-Ekiti, Ekiti South-West Local Government Area, is a plantation of a dangerous plant, cannabis sativa, also known as indian hemp. Cannabis sativa is reputed with many aliases which are: igbo, dope, ganja, morocco, eja and weed among others.

Johannesburg - The so-called "dagga couple" are asking people to take a deep breath and help raise funds to bring international experts to testify in a possible landmark case on laws relating to the plant. 

Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke are looking to reach an $80 000 (R1.1m) goal on theIndiegogo platform to bring cannabis experts to testify in what they call the "Trial of the Plant" at the High Court in Pretoria in March next year. 

More than $4 000 (R55 280) had been raised by Friday evening, four days after the couple started the campaign, and there were only 39 days left to raise the amount. 

A UN agency censored an official paper calling for drug use decriminalization. But its message is here to stay

Christian Baker is a chef living in Glen Ashley, Durban North, South Africa, and is the latest member of Iqela Lentsango, the Dagga Party of South Africa, to challenge the constitutionality of dagga prohibition in the nation of 53 million.

THERE was a small amount of marijuana in Zanele Moyo’s room and not the huge cache of empty alcohol bottles initially indicated, higher education minister Jonathan Moyo said on Wednesday.

Zanele, Minister Moyo’s daughter, was found dead in her off-campus flat in South Africa last Saturday. The 20-year-old was a second year student at the University of Cape Town.

Her body arrived in Harare Wednesday ahead of burial at Glen Forest on Friday.

Addressing mourners who included President Robert Mugabe, Minister Moyo said they found a small amount of marijuana when they got into Zanele’s apartment.

According to The Herald newspaper, Minister Moyo said the family had not raised any suspicion of foul play over his daughter’s passing.

The cultivation and use of marijuana is rapidly rising across Africa as farmers, hit by low commodity prices, increasingly see the drug as a cash crop.

Pressure for legalizing marijuana is increasing in many African countries as legalized pot in the U.S. and Uruguay leads the way.

“At the moment, farmers choose to cultivate marijuana over traditional crops because it commands a far higher market price on the black market both at home and abroad,” Zambian Green Party President Peter Sinkamba told Anadolu Agency.

Ghana, a small nation nestled between the Ivory Coast and Togo, offers a thriving nightlife and delicious, delirious drinks, but you have to know where to go. Luckily, I was visiting my American friend and her Ghanaian husband, who is a prominent member of the Ga tribe, in the capital city of Accra. He knew the town like a priest knows the Bible, and I was promised a fun night out.

Little did I know how it would end.

A new draft law aims to legalize marijuana growing for medical and industrial uses, a controversial idea for a Muslim nation

Kettama, Morocco — In the rugged Rif mountains, Abdelkhalek Benabdallah strode among towering marijuana plants, checking the buds for the telltale spots of white that indicate they are ready for harvest.

Much of the crop had been picked and left to dry on the roofs of stone-and-wood huts that dot the valley, the heart Morocco’s pot-growing region. Benabdallah says he openly grows the crop, while understanding the risk: “We are regularly subject to blackmail by the gendarmes,” he said as he scythed through stalks and wrapped them into a bundle.

Increasing numbers of American states and other countries are liberalising their stance on dagga.

In May, the Medical Innovation Bill came before the South African parliamentary portfolio committee on health, in consultation with the Medical Research Council. The Bill is intended to make provision for the use of cannabinoids in medical treatment.

It is a topical issue author Hazel Crampton decided to research further, linking dagga all the way back to the 19th century and beyond. According to her findings, dagga was used freely in South Africa for hundreds of years. It was used in