Zambian army to grow cannabis

Major Solochi, the general in charge of the Zambian army's national service, declared at the end of February that his forces would be acquiring land in several of the country's provinces to cultivate medical marijuana, and planting is due to start in March.

Over 3,000 jobs are expected to be created by this new industry, supported by traditional chiefs, Zambia's land guardians, who have «agreed» to freely cede part of their land for cannabis deployment.

Cannabis in Zambia

Zambia, unlike its neighbors, the’South Africa, the Zimbabwe and the Lesotho, Zambia is one of the African countries taking its time in legalizing medical cannabis, or at least its cultivation and export. Medical cannabis is forbidden for Zambians, but the country, like the UK until recently, authorizes its cultivation and export.

«Zambia has some of the richest soils in Africa ecologically and, given the country's gigantic size, dense virgin lands that, on paper, are fantastic for high-quality cannabis. It's a mystery why Zambia has so far been absent from all the cannabis deals made in Lesotho, South Africa, Malawi or Zimbabwe,» says analyst Dennis Juru of South Africa International Cross Borders Traders Association.

According to local feedback, so far the Zambian parliament has only «approved the publication and introduction of a bill in parliament for the legalization of cannabis cultivation».

«Zambia sees cannabis as a security crop, hence the army's decision to pre-empt legalization in order to seize land earmarked for cannabis», explains Deogracias Kalima, a freelance writer specializing in ecology for the magazine Unsustainable and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in neighboring Malawi, where Mike Tyson named cannabis ambassador.

Zambia isn't the only country in the region that seems to be militarizing cannabis. Its neighbor to the south, Zimbabwe, which legalized cannabis in 2018, Zimbabwe is also a place where cannabis has been militarized. Firstly, the Zimbabwe police and prison service, which are highly militarized organs of the state, were awarded their first licenses in 2019 to cultivate cannabis plantations on prison sites for export.

«The Zambian army, like that of its neighbor Zimbabwe, is the ultimate 'deep state». It has obviously observed the trend in neighbouring Zimbabwe to partially militarize lucrative cannabis transactions and thought, »Why can't we do the same here?« explains Kalima

«Cannabis securitization, I think, is a pretty poor cannabis policy to build a weed industry».

The Italian army has also begun growing medical cannabis, with catastrophic results in terms of quantity and quality, which prompted the Italian government to to open up culture to the private sector.