Business Insider Africa recently wrote that the African cannabis market is potentialls worth more than 7 billion dollars USD, noting that the only thing standing in the way is the legalization of marijuana. While a framework for the medical use for cannabis has been made in South Africa and Lesotho, there are little signs of widespread legalization, which makes the BIA report moot. If you ask people on the ground in Southern Africa, they will all say that there will never be a time that cannabis will be legalized; here, if you possess marijuana you will do jail time, and there is a heavy stigma against it in the population. But, what about the non-psychoactive member of the family, the versatile and profitable commercial hemp plant? Well, that's hard to say, because there doesn't appear to be a valuation on the industrial use of hemp in Africa. If anyone has new information on the vaulation of commercial hemp in Africa, I would be interested to know that.
