02 Apr 2025

Botswana will participate in rigorous research on the benefits of cultivating Cannabis for medical and scientific purposes.

“We are open to clinical trials and studies that will enable us to fully understand the breadth of the therapeutic potential of cannabis,” President Advocate Duma Boko said at the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs (ESACD) conference in Gaborone yesterday.

He said Botswana needed to be proactive in reaping benefits from the Cannabis. He also said the conference came at an opportune time for the country as it had started to debate a policy on the licit use of cannabis, as it would bring more enlightenment.

“Drug policy reforms must be harmonised and be consistent with quality standards. They must address any legal ambiguities and create robust regulatory frameworks,” he said.  

President Boko also said such a policy must appreciate the role of small farmers so that they were not cast to the margins, but rather be assisted to comply with highest international standards so as to benefit. 

“We are also not oblivious to the harms associated with Cannabis. We are alive to the realities and complexities of regulating the space,” he said, hence there was need for cross border cooperation for effective control, regulation and enforcement of drug policies. 

In its quest to regulate legal Cannabis cultivation, the country will be joining other African countries such as Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Rwanda, Ghana and Morocco among others. 

For his part, European Union (EU) delegation in Botswana representative, Mr Catalin Gherman said they supported development of policies and regulatory framework for the legalisation of cannabis and noted that the risk and potential for organised crime to exploit the new regulations ought to be limited. 

Former president of South Africa and chairperson of the Eastern and Southern Africa Commission on Drugs, Mr Kgalema Motlanthe said the region faced serious and multifaceted challenges from illegal drugs distribution and use, as it had become an established transit and destination corridor for large scale intercontinental drugs flows. 

He said there was a broad recognition that current strategic and policy responses to countering drug trafficking and use in the region were not achieving set goals, hence they must be reviewed. 

“It is important to introduce policies that address the current harm in our communities,” he said.

The two-day workshop was attended by among others, former president of Mozambique, Mr Joaquim Chissano, who also is ESACD commissioner, scholars, policy makers and industry experts. ENDS