Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis

[cies]

Finally. I've got the impression that many drugs were politically criminalized in order make sure non-western countries would not get wealthy by them. (Yet publicly different reasons were used)

And no this is not like oil. Mining (for oil or gold among others) is a very different business than farming (for weed or coca or opium among others), leading to a different wealth distribution. All that western "free trade" promotion BS while being so so careful with importing agricultural products to "protect local farmers" whom in turn became a small % yet heavily amplified in output by their diesel machines: this clearly made winners and losers in the global "free" trade game.

Nuf ranting: this news shows some movement towards common sense policy.

[econcon]

We all know about the opium wars

[dingribanda]

In some parts of Africa, growing khat is more lucrative than growing food. This causes acute food shortages. I am not sure how this is going to affect growing food, if cannabis is more lucrative than growing food.

[ChuckMcM]

If it is more lucrative than growing food, does that mean you can buy an equivalent amount of imported food and pocket the profits? If that was the case then it would be an example globalization at work. (note, I don't know if it is)

Similarly, would wealthy khat growers be willing to pay more for food? Since they have more wealth? If so then it would create inflationary pressure on food prices and thus make growing food pay more than it had before.

I can easily imagine that the markets would be imbalanced at first, but it seems the mechanisms would correct that if it is simply more valuable to grow khat.

[tim333]

When I was in Malawi many years ago cannabis was incredibly cheap. It's got a climate where you pretty much just have to drop some seeds by the road and a while later there are plants. I doubt it will cause much food shortages.

[int_19h]

If it is more lucrative than growing food, I don't think it matters much if it's legal or not - it'll happen anyway, except that when it's all black market, there's associated violent crime, and the government can't tax any of the profits.

[munk-a]

The world produces more than enough food to feed everyone so this isn't a simple zero sum game. Individuals deciding to grow khat are, in theory, exchanging their grown goods for food to feed themselves (or else they are quite poor at planning for the future). Let's say the khat grower switched to corn, now the farmer just has a bunch of corn - does this somehow benefit his starving neighbors? If he can afford to share his corn with his neighbors he could afford to share even more food when growing khat.

So the question here isn't whether a farmer should grow khat or corn and how that effects the food supply - it's whether land distribution, the opportunity to chose what to farm, is distributed in a fair enough manner that everyone has the opportunity to avoid starvation.

It is extremely likely that a corrupt country doesn't have a decent allocation of land and has favored designating a lot of land to specific influential people, but whether those people grow khat or corn doesn't matter at all except in terms of further securing their influence.

If it's more lucrative to grow cannabis than growing cannabis means you've produced more food - the only issues arise when the supply of food is artificially limited (for instance due to import sanctions) and the value of that cannabis isn't convertible into food - in this scenario, then, the value of cannabis would tank and it'd become nearly worthless - or we'd have a scenario of uneven enforcement where an external to the country entity (like a drug cartel) is funding the farming and removing the product from the local market for re-sale elsewhere where the value hasn't tanked and, in this scenario, the best response is for the government to legalize the substance so that the market can equalize the value of the cash crop toward an actual value in terms of food.

Honestly, most of these weird market effects is because the US absolutely hates drug production and has a "war on drugs" that they actively export... All while constantly consuming truckloads of the stuff. If things were legalized in the US a lot of these problems would just naturally correct themselves - barring that legalizing them overseas removes a lot of the power that cartels have. This is since, if the product is illegal, only the large criminal organizations can afford the distribution network - if it's legal then a drug cartel can just purchase the drugs on an open market and allow farmers to individually make the choice of which crop to grow without worrying about people with guns.

[MisterTea]

Hemp seeds can be eaten and provide nutrients. Though I am not sure of the yield per hectare vs a staple crop like rice or wheat.

[zshrdlu]

I'm highly skeptical, needs some citations. In Kenya, Meru is one of the most fertile regions and it produces tons of bananas and other produce alongside khat. In any case, keep in mind that there are other "cash crops" besides khat (such as tea, coffee, pyrethrum, cotton) that have been (historically) more lucrative than growing food for large-scale farmers so this isn't something unique to khat.

[Aviatore]

I agree with your point. I am also having a difficult time understanding how a landlocked country expects to grow its exports in this area without some degree of condemnation from surrounding nations. Many nations are eager to have a reason for a conflict, this may be something used to propel the Malawi–Tanzania dispute.

[mythrwy]

Weird. One would think growing the more lucrative crop would provide money to buy food.

[logfromblammo]

Hemp is an oilseed plant, the press cake is edible, and may may also be used as livestock feed.

Marijuana cultivation attempts to grow mainly seedless female plants, but hemp fiber farmers won't starve.

[Koremat6666]

> growing khat is more lucrative than growing food

Could you please clarify more ? I think I am missing something. If khat pays more wouldn't it mean you can sell khat and buy food with that money ?

[voldacar]

acute food shortages would make growing food more lucrative than growing khat. there is probably something else going on

[bilekas]

Wait a min..

> legalised the growing, selling and export of cannabis.

> But the country still restricts the legalization of cannabis for personal use

So you can grow it and even sell it.. But if you dare consume it you're a criminal ? Or the person you sell it to, if they consume it they're breaking the ?

This sounds very odd!

EDIT: My mistake, its for hemp and oil production. That makes way more sense.

[pbhjpbhj]

IIRC one of the ex-PM May's husband's firms owned the largest cannabis operation [in Europe ?? used in medicinal sales globally] whilst their partner was responsible for stopping sale and use (including medical) in the UK.

Clever and morally void: what we in the UK call "Tory".

https://beta.spectator.co.uk/article/homegrown-industry

[Scoundreller]

Then there’s Canada, where you can grow it or buy it (from legal distributors), but import/export is verboten without a license that’s impossible to get for personal use.

[michaelrubin]

In college, my economics professor put a question on the final about how we might solve the economic issues around the corn blight in Malawi. At the time, I wouldn't have dared raise this as the answer.

[lavezzi]

They are shifting focus from growing tobacco to growing weed. This really doesn't solve anything aside from replacing the economic output from a rapidly declining industry.

[brianbreslin]

I heard lesotho has a huge business of selling medical marijuana to Europe. [1] I met a guy in this business, the scale is huge.

1. https://time.com/5752765/lesotho-africa-cannibabis-exports/

[dumbfoundded]

The European cannabis market is early and developing. Many companies have been bitten by building out capacity before demand. All of the Canadian cannabis companies way over produce for the Canadian market so they planned to sell to Europe and possibly the US. Other countries like Columbia are also aiming to get this international export market.

[bitxbitxbitcoin]

But personal consumption isn't allowed. This is a classic example of a government getting in on legalization for the money and not for the betterment of its citizens.

[wdb]

Not much different as weed being illegal in The Netherlands but the government is looking the other way and condoning it.

[dkural]

I am not sure how full legalization contributes to the betterment of citizens, especially young citizens.

[dzonga]

malawi already has a reputation in southern african countries of producing some potent weed. I guess, this is a good move for them. hopefully, in SA n zim they will able to access Malawi weed easily now

[CurtBurbinger]

How big of a deal is this for North American growers?

[loeg]

Probably not a big deal? The fed still thinks weed is illegal and if customs is doing their job, above-board imports won't be permitted. The existing smuggling industry is probably already cornered by cartels and don't pay much for their supply anyway.

[retrac]

Canada presently prohibits all import and export of cannabis. It's legally restricted to a purely domestic industry. That could change of course, but probably not until a number more countries legalize the growing and export of cannabis.

[carredondo]

I read that as "growling"