Pros and Cons of Legalising Cannabis Cultivation
The proposal by the State Minister of Tourism to legalise cannabis cultivation for export purposes, emphasising that such a State-sponsored venture would assist the recovery of Sri Lanka’s economy from the present crisis and settle foreign debt to a certain extent, has drawn the attention of many. Following the State Minister’s proposal, President Ranil Wickremesinghe appointed a Parliamentary Committee to explore the possibilities of legalising cannabis cultivation for export purposes.
However, the heightened interest in cannabis cultivation gave rise to a debate among several segments of society due to many preconceived notions as well as misconstrued ideas about this controversial topic.
Dr. Samadhi Rajapaksa – NATA Chairperson
Chairman of the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Dr. Samadhi Rajapaksa said, if the Parliamentary Committee appointed to legalise cannabis could prove countries have economically benefited from cannabis production and exports, NATA will support legalising cannabis in Sri Lanka.
“There is a six per cent reduction in smoking tobacco consumption in Sri Lanka in 2022, if this continues in every country their industry will collapse. Canada is the country which majorly started with nine factories to manufacture cannabis, but now they are facing a huge loss and all these factories have since been closed. Even Lebanon is facing the same situation. If someone is trying to say that there is a huge market for cannabis because of its medicinal benefits, that’s false. Worldwide research on cannabis-based medications has produced unexpected results. There’s only one medicine which was used for epilepsy patients, yet in a very minimal quantity. Even if we collect the cannabis found illegally, we have a surplus,” he added.
Dr. Rajapaksa further claimed that even when it comes to indigenous medicines, they have scientific evidence that cannabis wasn’t used in large quantities.
“Indigenous Doctors say they use oil or king coconut water to get rid of the poisonous aspect of cannabis even when using the slightest amount of it for certain medicines. We argue with scientifically proven facts, unlike some people who act on assumptions,” he said.
Dr. Rajapaksa further inquired that there are 90 other various types of different plants and herbs that have a great demand amongst the Sri Lankan Ayurvedic sector, which are being imported despite the ability to grow them in Sri Lanka, why doesn’t the Government focus on those plants and herbs and start growing them, instead of focusing just on cannabis?
“It has assured that we are getting enough volume of cannabis where the entire Sri Lankan Ayurvedic practitioners need. It is legal to use it in Ayurvedic medicines and when we spoke to the Chairman of the Ayurvedic Association, it is confirmed that an adequate amount of what they need has been supplied. Even now we have a surplus of crops for cannabis cultivation.
In this scenario, if we legalise cultivating cannabis for export purposes, in a few years we will be able to witness people smoking and ‘getting high’ in every corner of the road,” he added.
Dr. Rajapaksa claimed that whoever the politicians and professionals argue that there is a massive ‘Dollar income’ business waiting in the international market, through cannabis, they would be deceived and disappointed.
“They say that we could produce cannabis-based products for exports, such as cannabis refined oil, but we hardly have any evidence or facts to support this claim. Five to ten years ago Canada started five companies to produce cannabis refined oil. They were doing well at the start, because there was a global demand then, for cannabis refined oil which was used for medical and other research purposes. At that time, allopathic drugs were tested and made out of cannabis for neurological diseases and psychotic diseases. But after a few years of research, the results of these drugs have revealed that they did not give out the expected results and did not respond favourably to treatments, it was causing more harm than cure,” he added.
He added that there is only one legal drug that has been successfully formulated through cannabis, which is only given to severe-stage epilepsy patients who are children.
“Other than that, modern science and western medicine do not recommend the use of cannabis. Though these politicians claim that they will be supervising the cultivation and the exporting process of cannabis under strict measures, after two or three crops all these strict measures will be violated. Once this starts freely being circulated and distributed among the youngsters we will be witnessing many young cannabis addicts in no time, making the country’s situation even much worse,” he added.