If the petition filed by Gwada Ogot, a researcher, is adopted, it will no longer be illegal to plant or sell bhang, reports.
Gwada will appear before the Senate’s Health committee chaired by Migori Senator Wilfred Machage.
Ogot, a resident of Siaya county, argues in his petition the plant has multiple documented benefits.
He says the medicinal and industrial uses of the plant, upon its legalisation, will be of ‘great social and economic gains’.
Section 3 (2) (a) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act lists the drug as a banned substance. Possession and use of the drug is a criminal offence.
Ogot wants bhang expunged from the list and a new law made to establish a regulatory body to govern its use.
The petitioner further recommends people serving jail sentences either for possession, cultivation, transportation, sale or use of the plant be released from prison.
In supporting his proposals, Ogot argues that as at December last year, several US states and at least 25 countries had decriminalised the use of cannabis.
He said, “The crime and controversy around marijuana emanates from its prohibition and not from the plant itself, its uses or users.”
A compound in marijuana known as cannabidiol has been found by scientists as fit for treatment of schizophrenia.
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