Eswatini remains one of the more restrictive jurisdictions in the region. The Opium and Habit-Forming Drugs Act of 1922 and related pharmacy legislation still treat cannabis broadly as a prohibited substance. There is no operational adult-use framework and no clearly established public medical-cannabis access system for ordinary citizens. Industrial hemp is not separately legalised for […]
Tag Archives: South Africa comparison
Botswana has moved from near-total prohibition toward a regulated medicinal, scientific, research and industrial cannabis framework. The Cannabis Act 2025 established the legal basis. Subsequent amendments to the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act were passed to harmonise existing criminal law with the new licensed activities, explicitly allowing cultivation, production, storage, manufacture, […]
Zimbabwe moved earlier than many of its neighbours when it came to formalising parts of the cannabis sector. In 2018 the government issued Statutory Instrument 62 of 2018, creating a legal framework for the cultivation, processing and export of cannabis for medicinal and scientific purposes. The move was widely reported as one of the more […]
Namibia’s primary legislation remains the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971 — an apartheid-era statute inherited at independence. Cannabis production, use and trade are prohibited. Despite public submissions from civil-society groups (including Rastafari and medical-cannabis associations) calling for reform, and despite regional movement all around it, Namibia has not yet […]