Cannabis: The Billion Dollar Industry and Nigerian Legislation.
The first proper legislation concerning the cultivation, trafficking and abuse of Cannabis in Nigeria is the 1935 Dangerous Drugs Act. Also known as ‘the DDA’, the Act defines Indian hemp as i. ANY PLANT OR PART OF A PLANT OF THE GENUS CANNABIS; or ii. the separate resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from any part of the genus cannabis; or iii. any preparation containing any such resin, by whatever name that plant, part, resin, the preparation may be called; It makes provision for licensed importers of cannabis from other countries to be issued a Nigerian export license. According to the DDA, the President has the sole authority to make further directives and injunctions concerning the control, possession, production, transit, importation, exportation, sale and distribution of cannabis. Fast forward 31years, in comes the 1966 Indian Hemp Decree or Indian Hemp Act (IHA). This Federal legislation also allows for t