MBABANE – A serious dagga shortage has led to three dagga farmers being killed in cold blood by a South African gang which seeks to satisfy the lucrative South African market.

Swaziland, the main supplier to the market in SA, has been hit by a serious shortage after the Royal Swaziland police (RSP) sprayed and destroyed hectares of the illegal herb, mostly in northern Hhohho.
The attackers are said to pretend to be police officers from the RSP.

New York, United States — US Border Patrol officials deal with thousands of people making illegal crossings from Mexico every month.

Apart from children and families making the crossings, the US has to deal with the shipment of illicit drugs and this week, Kenya's Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery witnessed first-hand the arrest of three individuals trying to smuggle marijuana into the US.

Nkaissery had been on a three-day learning mission at El Paso on the US-Mexico border together with PS Monica Juma to better understand how officials deal with border patrol and control.

A couple aged 50 years was arrested in Murang’a for being in possession of five stones of bhang.

The two were arrested on Tuesday evening at their home at Githunguri village in Iyego location, Kangema Constituency.

The arrest comes after one week of intensive surveillance on the couple following information provided by the public to the newly established Quick Response Team of police known as QRT.

According to Murang’a County Commissioner Kula Hache, the couple, Peter Muturi and his wife Jane Wambui, has been selling the narcotics for a very long time.

The two are said to have been arrested a couple of times, charged in court and fined but have never abandoned the illegal business.

Story by Seshata

It is the middle of September, and the annual cannabis harvest in Morocco is about to commence. While some fields here and there have already been harvested, as is evident from the bare, vaguely oblong patches scattered here and there on the otherwise verdant hillsides, the vast majority are yet to be cut. PROHBTD has come to the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, where the bulk of the country’s cannabis crop is cultivated, to observe the typical routine of an average day during harvest time.

The Colorado Department of Revenue reported $70 million in tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana, between July 2014 and June 2015. This history-making record easily topped the $42 million revenue the state made from alcohol in the United States within the same period of time. Marijuana has been so productive in Colorado that the state issued a tax holiday for marijuana items, proving that legalisation and proper regulation of the drug can significantly contribute its quota to revenue in any economy.

A 19-year-old boy was on Monday arrested after police discovered a cannabis (bhang) farm in his home at Kiandai Village in Kirinyaga County.

The incident, which left residents of the village in Ndia Constituency and his family members shocked, took place after members of the public tipped the police about the presence of bhang in Cyru Wanjohi’s farm.

Confirming the arrest, Ndia OCPD Gasper makau said Cyrus Wanjohi is being held at Baricho Police Station as security officers conduct further investigations.

Seun Kuti who is a famous marijuana user spoke for the legalization of 'weed' in an interview with The Nation newspaper.

A landmark report by the West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) in June 2014, “Not Just for Transit: Drugs, the State and Society in West Africa”, emphasized decriminalizing some degree of narcotic drug use and possession for personal use, while calling for drug traffickers and their accomplices to face the full force of the law. This sensible recommendation is particularly appropriate for marijuana or cannabis, which is widely cultivated and used in West Africa. Its users, partly because they are mostly young and poor, continue to be disproportionately penalized by the criminal justice systems in the region – a serious human rights and governance problem. This violation must be urgently stopped.

A member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. George Boateng, has declared his intention to contest against President John Dramani Mahama in the party’s primary to enable him lead the party in the December 2016 elections, with a promise to legalise the cultivation and sale of cannabis in Ghana.
Speaking on Okay FM programme, a local radio station in Accra, Boateng said he would ensure that the legislation was put in place to ensure that Ghanaians can venture into cultivation of cannabis to enable them to export them without being arrested.

“It would be a great source of income for the nation. Countries such as Holland and Suriname for instance need these herbs for the production of drugs and Ghana can be their source of supply,” he said.

Afro beat singer, Seun Kuti, has said that the Nigerian government was ill advised to ban the use of marijuana, believing that the decision is a carryover of colonial law.

According to the artiste, “There are doctors and scientists who believe that marijuana should be legalised. There are also lawyers, judges, and politicians who believe that the war on drugs is a false war. That is actually a war on the poor people all over the world, because poor people and rich people use drugs to be sane. But you will find that here, people are in jail more for drug use.”