It’s high time Kenya legalised weed – VIDEO – Nairobi News

Outspoken Narok Senator Ledama Ole Kina has joined the campaign for legalisation of marijuana in Kenya.

Ole Kina made his views known while standing in the middle of a marijuana plantation in Lithuania, in a video clip which he shared on social media on Tuesday.

The Senator said Kenya should legalise weed for medicinal purpose as is the case in many other countries.

“Why is it that we in Kenya are still stuck with the old way of saying that this is an illegal drug… this is crazy… it really smell like weed. I might get out of here, high,” he jokingly says in the video.

The senator went on to make a case for his position, saying:

“If this is good to reduce the pain in cancer patients, why don’t you legalise it? What is so bad about it? We only live once. If weed is good, then let’s legalise it. If it’s bad then let’s not allow other people in the world to plant it.”

At the end of the video, the senator asks the person taking the video to take a wide shot of the expansive weed plantation.

“All this is weed… and it is legal, damn! I would like to live here,” he says with a chuckle.

MARIJUANA CONTROL BILL

In 2018, former Kibra Member of Parliament Ken Okoth wrote to the Speaker of the National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi to facilitate him in preparing a Bill, the Marijuana Control Bill, which sought to decriminalize the growth and use of the stimulant.

In the draft Bill, the legislator sought to have a regulation for the growth and safe use of the stimulant, including the registration of growers, producers, manufacturers and users.

The legislator also wanted research and policy development on growth and use of marijuana and hemp for medical, industrial, textile and recreational purposes “with a focus on preservation of intellectual property rights for Kenyan research and natural heritage, knowledge and our indigenous plant assets.”

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Mr Okoth said he believed that legalising marijuana would boost the country’s economy and create jobs.

A year earlier, Gwada Ogot from Siaya County petitioned the Senate for the same, saying that the plant is “God’s gift to mankind”.

And when Okoth died in July last year, Nairobi Governor, Mike Sonko, while speaking during the late MP’s funeral service, said it was time for Kenya to legalise medicinal marijuana to treat cancer and protect the health of the general population.

“We should be clear here. Marijuana will not protect against cancer or cure cancer. However, it can provide pain relief and reduce nausea,” Sonko said then.