A former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Mental Health Authority, Ambassador Akwasi Osei has stated that Ghana stands to lose more than gain from the decriminalisation of cannabis cultivation.

According to him, the mental health issues associated with the use of cannabis outweighs the economic benefits which has been a key defense in the recent legalisation of its cultivation for industrial and medicinal use.

“Multiples of the money that will be realised will go into taking care of the various health issues it will bring so in the end it will not help. Some people are cultivating the wrong cannabis with what has been approved and the bad one is what causes the mental sickness which requires money to treat… In the end it will be a bad decision. So in my view it was not necessary that the law be passed,” he told the media at the Press Launch of Mindfreedom Ghana, a mental health organisation.

A bill approved by the parliament of Ghana had legalised the utilization and cultivation of cannabis specifically for medical and industrial purposes.

However, the Supreme Court of Ghana on March 27, 2022, issued a ruling in favour of a suit challenging the constitutionality of section 43 of the Narcotics Control Commission Act. This section pertained to the issuance of licenses for the cultivation of medical cannabis.

The decision to “legalize cannabis” was overturned in May 2023, for the second time. In a majority decision of 5-4, the Supreme Court affirmed its stance that the law permitting the cultivation of cannabis in Ghana was unconstitutionally passed by Parliament.

License for cannabis cultivation in Ghana is a recipe for disaster - Prof Akwasi Osei#UTVNews pic.twitter.com/INx2L6YgQx

— UTV Ghana (@utvghana) October 20, 2023