Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu has said that it is important cannabis cultivated for medicinal purposes be legalized in Nigeria.
The Ondo governor stated this yesterday on an interview programme tagged Governor Speaks monitored by Africa Daily News, New York.
The programme was part of activities lined up in commemoration of his 100 days of his second term in office.
During the interview, Akeredolu said, cannabis could be a strong foreign exchange earner for Nigeria if its cultivation was legalised.
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He described not legalizing cannabis as shooting ourselves in the leg.
Akeredolu said: ‘We must find a way to legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal purposes. There is nothing wrong about it. We are only shooting ourselves in the foot. It is a foreign exchange earner for people outside the country. People want this. We ourselves, even our pharmacies want to develop…
‘I travelled out of here and I was in Thailand trying to study the cultivation of cannabis for pharmaceutical use. We did all these, we even went there with NDLEA (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency), the chairman at that time went with us, maybe he came and said what he went for was for a different thing but that was why we went and all I felt that let us look at the way they did it over there’.
Recall that in January, the House of Representatives proposed the legalization of cultivation and trading of cannabis for medical and cosmetic use, research purposes as well as revenue generation for Nigeria.
A Cannabis Control Bill 2020 was sponsored by Miriam Onuoha.
It is awaiting second reading.
But the bill has been met with stiff opposition.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
