The law on cannabis cultivation in Sri Lanka will soon be presented to the government

Sri Lanka has completed the drafting of its laws governing the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes. The Minister of Indigenous Medicine, Sirira Jayakody, announced that they will soon be submitted to the Cabinet for approval.

«Cannabis falls under the Ayurveda (indigenous medicine) Act,» Minister Jayakody told reporters. «This is a matter for the Department of Ayurveda.»

«We must handle this with discipline. We cannot allow its use for recreational purposes. But we can use cannabis and cannabis extracts for medical purposes.".

«There is also strong demand for exports,» he said, estimating that the country could earn up to 3 billion euros a year from exports.

«We have drafted the legal provisions. In a few days, we will present them to the government.»

In 2017, the Sri Lanka had announced its intention to establish a 400-hectare cannabis plantation near Ingiriya to supply cannabis to Ayurvedic practitioners and, potentially, to export cannabis-based remedies to the United States.

Medical cannabis is already sold in Sri Lanka at Ayurvedic stores. The Sri Lankan Ministry of Health is currently the only legal source of cannabis, obtaining the drug primarily through police raids on illegal shipments. The cannabis distributed in this way is often of poor quality.

The only practitioners legally authorized to sell cannabis are Ayurvedic practitioners, whose number is estimated at about 16,000. Its medical use is not criminalized.

The country has a a long history of consumption and culture cannabis. As early as 1860, the British-controlled island was already producing cannabis on a massive scale, which was exported to China along with opium.