Puff and pass: Namibia’s green rush stuck in reverse

Yet, Namibia appears to cling to an archaic prohibitionist stance, presenting a striking contrast to its progressive neighbours.

Botswana too remains firmly prohibitionist on cannabis, yet, three weeks after coming into power in November last year, President Duma Boko announced that Botswana would diversify its diamond-dependent economy by entering the medicinal cannabis market and exploiting its abundant sunshine. “We will create jobs in this industry,” said Boko.

South Africa, from where Namibia takes most of its policy through necessity, as the country’s small and open economy is intrinsically linked to that country, adults may privately grow and consume cannabis. Over 110 cultivation licences for medicinal cannabis have been issued and experts envision that the country’s 2021 National Cannabis Master Plan could generate up to R100 billion if regulation stabilises. 

Recently, the Cannabis and Hemp Association of Namibia (CHAN), Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN), Medical Marijuana Association of Namibia (MMAN) and the Rastafari United Front (RUF) jointly submitted proposals for the urgent reform of cannabis laws in the country after a Ministry of Justice request for public input on outdated and discriminatory legislation still in force. 

They argued that the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971 (RSA) that prohibits production, use or trade in cannabis is rooted in apartheid-era frameworks and violates both constitutional rights and international legal standards.

“These laws continue to criminalise Namibians for a plant that has medicinal, cultural, religious, and economic value. They disproportionately harm poor, Black communities while allowing wealthy corporations to profit freely,” a joint statement of the organisations reads.

The advocacy groups also argue that the country’s cannabis prohibition laws violate multiple articles of the Namibian Constitution, including rights to life, personal liberty, dignity, fair trial, equality, privacy, religious freedom, and health, citing instances like Ellest ‘Speedy’ Plaatje, who died in police custody (after alleged assault by officers) for holding one small bag of cannabis. They contend that current laws perpetuate economic exclusion by barring ordinary citizens from the cannabis and hemp economy while corporations profit, hindering rural development and job creation.

Furthermore, they assert that Namibia’s stance breaches international human rights treaties and contradicts global trends towards cannabis decriminalisation and reform.

PUFF AND PASS

To understand our nation’s plan with what is considered a new gold rush, I attempted to locate the policy thinking and where the ruling elite stand on cannabis, considering the conservative faction running the ruling party right now and successive Namibian governments’ inability to change course on policy as well as the relative short period the new administration has been in office. 

My quest for clarity on Namibia’s cannabis policy turned into a frustrating exercise of pass-the-reporter (like a zol among a circle of cannabis smokers) where my inquiry unearthed a shocking level of inertia, which would eventually dissipate into a cloud of nothing.

I simply wanted to know what the new President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah thought of the opportunities presented by the plant, considering Namibia’s neighbours’ increasing liberal stance on cannabis that has policing and business implications for Namibia, whose economies and people are intrinsically linked with its neighbours.

Seeking insights from a higher authority, I turned to State House, where press secretary Alfredo Hengari provided a dual-layered response.

“Please advise if you checked with the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. These are matters are dealt with at the level of the line Ministry. I would like you to speak to the responsible Ministry. President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is implementing the Swapo Party Manifesto, which does not at any point refer to the commercialisation of cannabis, a prohibited substance in terms of our laws. Instead, the agenda of the President is focussed on value addition and natural resource beneficiation, Agricultural value chains, professionalisation of creative industries among others in order to grow our economy and to create jobs,” was press secretary Alfredo Hengari’s verbatim response.

I was temporarily stunned into immobility but still high on hope. 

As I thought the business unusual mantra had reached at least the upper echelons of the new administration, I, meanwhile, set off to ask the new Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy, headed by the Deputy Prime Minister Natangwe Ithete.

They too said my question was “under the mandate of the ministry of agriculture”. 

But here the executive director passed me to the spokesperson. I passed on that opportunity. Entry-level officials don’t set policy.

As my inquiry failed to produce any harvest at agriculture, the next stop on my no whiff of a dagga policy tour was the justice ministry, where laws are incubated; spokesperson Edmund Khoaseb promptly told me to call the police: “Those questions are outside the mandate of the Ministry of Justice and Labour Relations. I would advise that you forward your questions to NamPol.”

Alarmed, I swiftly called in the enforcers of the law. 

My questions were around the effectiveness of the current enforcement strategy in curbing illicit trade in cannabis. I received the standard “hard at work to fight crime” reply. But police spokesperson Kauna Shikwambi acknowledged that “it has become very prevalent in our society” and “our youth are captured, and when the youth are captured, that should be very worrisome for everyone, not just the police.”  

She insists the police’s current strategies are “somewhat effective” because of the various successes and that officers arrest suspects “on a daily basis”.

She couldn’t help me with specific stats and figures to show exactly how effective their hard work was, so I had to write an official letter, this time to Namibian Police chief, Joseph Shikongo.

I’m still waiting for my turn to get answers from Police HQ.

I learnt that Cabinet in 2022 commissioned a study to research the usefulness and the legal milieu around the plant. 

In 2023, the University of Namibia (Unam) was approached by the then Ministry of Higher Education, Technology and Innovation “to provide expert guidance on the issue of cannabis use and its potential legalisation”, according to spokesperson Simon Namesho.

Unam then formed a multidisciplinary team of experts in various fields of medicine, law, social work, anthropology, natural product sciences, and policy to study cannabis use. This team’s goal was to assess both the benefits and challenges of cannabis, specifically considering Namibia’s sociocultural context and the legal developments in nearby countries.

After reviewing existing literature and international best practices, the Unam team proposed a “comprehensive research project”. This project would aim to create an evidence base for future policy decisions regarding cannabis in Namibia. The proposal, intended to provide an evidence base for future policy decisions, including a detailed work plan and budget, was submitted to the relevant authorities, marking the “end of Unam’s role” in this initial phase.

Unam said they understood the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) was subsequently tasked by Cabinet to fund and oversee the proposed research project. 

“Given that the MoHSS is currently the lead agency on this matter, you may wish to contact the ministry directly for the latest updates or official position.

My initial optimism quickly gave way to exasperation as the trail quickly grew cold at the ministry of health. 

Given that the MoHSS is currently the lead agency on this matter, I embarked upon a months-long quest.

The then long-serving health minister Kalumbi Shangula had told The Brief in May last year that the country does not see the need to legalise cannabis for pain management, as the current stock of medications delivered via intramuscular or intravenous is effective. 

From these pronouncements it would seem that neither Shangula nor his ministry were aware of Unam’s study proposal submitted to the Namibia Medicines Regulatory Council (NMRC) in 2023. So I asked the ministry’s spokesperson who informed me, “NMRC and Unam were conducting research on that, and the research has not been completed yet. Once the research is completed, the ministry will be able to pronounce itself.

Walters Kamaya, the MoHSS spokesperson, offered a response that directly contradicted Unam’s narrative. Kamaya stated, “NMRC and UNAM were conducting research on that, and the research has not been completed yet. Once the research is completed, the ministry will be able to pronounce itself.” 

This response revealed a significant communication breakdown or a profound lack of awareness within MoHSS regarding the true status of the research. 

While Unam indicated their part was complete and funding was awaited from MoHSS, the ministry itself appeared to be waiting for a “completed” research project that, from Unam’s perspective, has stalled precisely because of a lack of communication or instruction from MoHSS. 

Kamaya did not answer further questions.

IRON FIST

Policies falling through the cracks effectively impede any potential policy reform that relies on scientific evidence, reinforcing the status quo despite a clear Cabinet mandate for investigation. It highlights a systemic issue where crucial, policy-relevant research becomes lost in administrative limbo.

The current administration, it appears, is not considering cannabis commercialisation, aligning its position with the Swapo party manifesto and existing prohibition laws. This stance, however, presents a paradox: the government champions “value addition” and “agricultural value chains” as economic priorities, yet it explicitly excludes a potentially lucrative sector like cannabis, which could directly contribute to these very goals through industries like medicine, textiles, or food. This suggests a missed opportunity, potentially stemming from a rigid adherence to outdated policy, prioritising political dogma over pragmatic economic diversification.

The bureaucratic merry-go-round and buck passing underscored the lack of clarity on which ministry, if any, held the primary responsibility for addressing cannabis policy, or perhaps a collective reluctance to engage with the sensitive subject.

Namibia’s legal framework governing cannabis remains rooted in a bygone era, specifically the “Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971”. This pre-independence legislation, inherited from South Africa, embodies a punitive, prohibitionist approach that predates most modern scientific understanding of cannabis. The Act broadly defines “deal in” to include any act connected with the collection, importation, supply, transhipment, administration, exportation, cultivation, sale, manufacture, transmission, or prescription of dependence-producing drugs, effectively continuing to criminalise the entire cannabis value chain. 

It also outlines provisions for rehabilitation centres, reflecting its focus on substance control and rehabilitation rather than economic opportunity.

The Namibian Police explicitly confirm their rigid adherence to this outdated legal framework. 

However, the police’s assessment of the effectiveness of current enforcement reveals a crucial contradiction. While claiming that strategies are “somewhat effective because of the various successes”, the police immediately temper this by acknowledging that cannabis “remains a concealed crime, thus with daily challenges and concerns because it has become very prevalent in our society and therefore threatening the future because our youth are captured, and when the youth is captured, that should be very worrisome for everyone, not just the police” [Namibian Police comments]. This admission is highly significant. If cannabis is “very prevalent” and “threatening the future” by “capturing youth”, then despite claims of “successes”, the current enforcement strategies are demonstrably failing to achieve their stated objective of preventing use and trade. The police’s own statements inadvertently highlight the ineffectiveness of prohibition in curbing the black market and its social costs, suggesting that the “iron fist” approach is not achieving its desired outcome and may even exacerbate social problems by criminalising a significant portion of the youth.

The true economic burden of this enforcement remains largely unquantified but still costs the public as law enforcers annually execute crime prevention operations, community education and engagements, detection, arrests, investigations, and prosecution by courts. 

Similarly, regarding the cost to hold a suspect, the police stated, “provision for feeding budget is always done, and trial-awaiting prisoners are fed three times daily.” 

We know the police had to let trial-awaiting inmates go in the past because of a lack of funds for food for these inmates, indicating either that the police do not track or are unwilling to disclose the specific financial burden of cannabis prohibition on the justice system. 

BIG BUSTS

Despite these enforcement efforts, the scale of the illicit cannabis market in Namibia is undeniable, as evidenced by recent multimillion-dollar busts. At the end of May, a staggering N$52 million cannabis plantation was discovered at Hochfeld in the Otjozondjupa region. This “intelligence-driven operation” led to arrests and the discovery of a 1.55-hectare dagga plantation, complete with a small factory used for harvesting, weighing, and packaging. While framed as “successes” by the police, these busts simultaneously highlight the massive scale and profitability of the illicit cannabis market. The existence of such large-scale operations underscores the failure of prohibition to eliminate supply and demand; instead, it pushes the industry underground, into the hands of criminal networks. The continued existence of massive illicit plantations suggests that prohibition is not deterring large-scale production but rather creating a lucrative black market. This directly contradicts the stated objectives of the 1971 Act and reinforces the argument that current laws are ineffective in achieving their aims, instead fuelling organised crime.

Two women were arrested in January for cultivating a cannabis plantation at Groot Aub, Khomas region.

Officers found 187 cannabis plants weighing 35 kilogrammes, with an estimated police value of N$1.7 million.

Internal pressure for reform is also mounting through ongoing legal challenges. Activists, including Borro Ndungula and members of the Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN), have held demonstrations advocating for legalisation, citing the medicinal, economic, and industrial potential of the plant. A significant legal challenge is scheduled for July in the Windhoek High Court, brought by GUN leaders Brian Jaftha and Borro Ndungula, who are contesting the constitutionality of Namibia’s cannabis laws. They argue that the prohibition infringes on personal freedoms, cultural practices, and religious rights and does not reflect modern scientific understanding or regional legal trends. These legal challenges mirror successful constitutional challenges seen in other countries like South Africa and Mexico, highlighting that Namibia’s current laws are not only economically and socially outdated but also potentially legally vulnerable.

Criticisms of cannabis have mostly focused on unproven claims but are repeated often enough to be accepted as fact. Notions like it’s a gateway drug, that using it affects the brain, that it makes users violent and many other social myths have not been proven scientifically. In fact, a perfectly legal substance, alcohol, is known for all of these and more. A thorough study by expert researchers could have cleared up many of the misconceptions and established a way for Namibia to craft its own path towards cultivating, harvesting and enjoying the fruits of its own soil. 

Namibia’s steadfast adherence to its prohibitionist stance on cannabis creates a significant economic blind spot, costing the nation dearly in terms of revenue, industry development, investment, research, employment, and efficient policing. The contrast with its neighbours highlights the profound opportunity costs.