The former secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, last week ignited a debate that many people, have called for, but unfortunately have been ignored.
He has called for the legalization of cannabis, known commonly as wee. We at The Herald think the call is long overdue, as other countries have taken the lead already.
Our plea however is that, before parliament considers such a bill, we must first of all enact laws to check the abuse of the substance. If there are, however, laws on our statutory books, we should set up a special institution to oversee the cultivation of the plant.
Will the decision be about consumption locally or for export to earn foreign exchange as other countries have done?
In this country, we do not respect the laws; enforcement is also non-existence, so we should not rush into doing anything, just to satisfy a certain need.
We must make sure we do not put the cart before the horse.
We support the call, but as stated earlier, we wish to caution that, we should hasten cautiously so that, we do not regret in the future, when the youth of the country, start abusing the substance.
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