Why legalized weed in Uganda is CRAZY

The world is a crazy place and all kinds of nonsense is happening right now. But for a small country, Uganda is the best. They managed to get the warring Democrats and Republicans to get upset about their LGBT+ policies. And if you look a little closer, they’re just a hot mess!

You’d think a country where weed is legal and medical marijuana is considered normal would just look at Italy, Canada, Mexico, a number of Scandinavian countries, and more. But no, Uganda goes its own way and leaves people scorched. What can you expect from a close ally of Putin?

The country is currently embroiled in a huge LGBT+ scandal. Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed into law one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “severe homosexuality”. Uganda has been riddled with allegations of arbitrary killings of opposition supporters, disenfranchisement and intimidation of voters, bribery, the closure of social media sites and a lack of transparency and independence in the electoral commission, which marred elections that fell short of international standards.

Photo by Alexander Mils via Unsplash

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In Transparency International’s 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, Uganda scored 26 on a scale of 0 (‘very corrupt’) to 100 (‘very clean’). When ranked by score, Uganda ranked 142nd out of the 180 countries in the index, with the country in last place considered to have the most corrupt public sector.

So why legalize marijuana? Over an eight-year period, the government’s Anti-Narcotics Unit (ANU) seized 11 pounds of cannabis and officially arrested about 482 people for possession… which is less than a gram per person. Hard for such a small amount.

Photo by OlegMalyshev/Getty Images

Additionally, the 2010 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report highlighted that there were only two sniffer dogs to conduct drug searches and no drug testing kits or x-ray machines to detect drugs, and noted that local police were both corrupt and undertrained.

In May, Uganda’s Constitutional Court made a decision that reportedly overturned the entire country’s Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Control Act. That didn’t make it remotely illegal, but it didn’t make it completely legal either…it was in no man’s land.

And for key players, money comes into play. The export of cannabis for medicinal purposes was approved by the Ugandan Ministry of Health in January 2020, which among other things stipulated that all cannabis exporters must have a minimum capital of US$5,000. Previously, however, Industrial Hemp Uganda, a private company, had exported medicinal cannabis to Germany and China. So legal if it generates revenue for key players.

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If you’re planning to join the millions of Americans and Canadians who travel during the summer, you’d better keep Uganda away from your places to relax.