Ever since Parliament passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2015, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of companies that want to grow weed in Uganda.
This number has risen to 50 and it includes both local and foreign businessmen that see medical marijuana growing as a rich uncharted territory with a lot of growth potential.
Under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 2015, government may issue licences to companies that want to grow marijuana or produce any other narcotics for medical purposes only, but this has not happened frequently.
In fact, it is only Industrial Hemp that is currently licensed to grow weed, and together with Israeli partners Together Pharma limited, they have already made their first harvest from their Kasese based farms.
Other companies are yet to receive licences, as the health minister Dr Ruth Aceng is taking her time on issuing these licences citing a pending report from a committee instituted by government to research and find out if growing medical marijuana would not have a negative impact on the economy.
According to Eddie Kwizera, the strategic consultant consortium of UK-based companies seeking to grow and process marijuana in Uganda, Aceng is frustrating investments and playing politics.
“The minister could be dillydallying because she is a Born-Again Christian but the law allows growing and processing of marijuana for medical purposes. Many investors are stuck; they are losing business because she has refused to act. Let the minister ask Parliament to repeal the law if she doesn’t want people to invest. She is hiding behind wide consultations on the matter yet the same government in 2016 licensed some companies to grow the same crop. These are double standards,” he said.
In her defence, Aceng said that she wrote to all the 50 companies that Uganda had not yet started issuing operational permits for companies to grow and process marijuana for medical purposes.