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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Swaziland: Farmers Find Marijuana the Most Lucrative Cash Crop
James Hall IPS News Agency
Friday 25 Jul 2003 MAPUTO, Jul 25 (IPS) - Drug interdiction efforts through the coordinated programmes of police forces of the region are having mixed results against small-landholder farmers who find marijuana cultivation yields by far their most lucrative cash crop. Each of the 14-member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have participated in drug-busting efforts, both through intelligence gathering and actual manpower provided by their national police establishments,says assistant inspector Vusie Masuku of the Swaziland Police Force. A sketch of the drug routes through the African sub-continent finds marijuana, or dagga as it is known locally, cultivated in eastern South Africa, southern Mozambique and the mountain areas of Swaziland. The crop is taken to Johannesburg for transshipment to Europe. Most of the people of the region do not purchase marijuana, because they grow it themselves if they want it, despite the illegality,David Pritchard, president of the Council Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse, told IPS. The farmers' interest is export, and their operations, such as the purchase of insecticide and irrigation equipment, are financed by the South African drug lords who purchase their crops. A reverse trek out of South Africa and into neighbouring countries is followed by processed or manufactured drugs, such as mandrax and ecstasy. These are either produced in South Africa, or smuggled in from Europe to meet the drug demands of South African consumers. Shipments then go out to purchasers as far north as Zambia, a nation which also imports its own drugs, according to Interpol. Police sources tell IPS that Nigeria has a sophisticated drug trafficking industry with global reach, which extends into Southern Africa. Since 2000, Nigerian police officers say they have intercepted and destroyed 300 kilogrammes of cocaine and heroine. They also destroyed 3000 hectares of cannabis plantation and persecuted and jailed over 2000 persons. Perhaps the only 'advantage' to the endemic poverty of the region is that young people do not have the disposable income to buy drugs,says Pritchard. More than 350 million people, over 50 percent of Africa's population, live below the poverty line of one U.S. dollar a day, according to the World Bank. But a growing population of middle-class youth seeks to imitate the dance club recreational drug use of their developed world counterparts, just as they emulate music and fashion trends. Last year, police interdiction efforts eradicated 50 percent of Swaziland's marijuana crop, according to inspector Masuku. This had to have had an effect on the streets of Johannesburg, where the dagga from Swaziland's mountains is called 'Swazi gold',Pritchard says. Swaziland's marijuana, prized for its potency, is valued in the Netherlands, where it has been shipped in block form via South Africa. Last week in Swaziland, two drug dealers were killed in a dispute amongst marijuana traffickers. Such violence is rare in the country, and may signal tension among traffickers as the illegal drug business expands or contracts. Last year's contraction of marijuana shipments out of Swaziland were due to extensive search and destroy missions carried out jointly by the police of South Africa, where the drug was destined, and Swazi police. A new road system through the mountainous northern Hhohho region has opened up areas where farms growing illicit crops were previously inaccessible. It turns out that the search and destroy missions were only partly responsible for the drop in marijuana shipments. It seemed that market forces had just a big influence on the dagga business,a police source told IPS. For years, the cultivation and shipment of marijuana had been the same, whether the crop originated from Mozambique or South Africa's Mpumalanga province. Farmers' dagga harvests were bundled together, and compressed into blocks the size of bricks for easier transport. Every marijuana farmer had a compression machine at his place. These would be our tip off that a dagga stash was somewhere about,the police source said. But European buyers no longer fancy marijuana in its original weedy state, which can be rolled into cigarettes for smoking. Rather, the demand now is for chocolate, a thick brown resin that is distilled from the plant. Extracting machines needed to produce chocolateare not usually obtainable by poor peasant farmers, and are not provided by drug lords who finance their operations. As a result, unsold stashes of marijuana are being found by regional police in record amounts. They are customarily burnt, with samples retained as evidence in court trials. The demand for marijuana resin appears to be customer-driven, but it also assists drug lords who don't have to worry about shipping large amounts of bulk marijuana,the police source said. However, the need to cultivate marijuana to produce chocolateremains. Many small landholding farmers argue that it is their right to grow marijuana, because the plant was smoked for centuries locally. The culturalargument does not sway law-enforcers, who see no need to toy with drug laws dating from the colonial era. All SADC countries have signed anti-drug protocols, and these oblige them to stop drug trafficking in their nations, and cooperate with regional efforts to do the same,says inspector Masuku. Efforts to convince farmers to plant hemp, a species of marijuana used in rope and clothes fibre manufacturing, awaits the development of an industry that can effectively turn the raw material into marketable products. Agricultural ministries also urge marijuana farmers to plant legal crops that can also be exported for cash, such as vegetables. But as long as marijuana can be grown for greater profit, the estimated 70 percent of farmers in Swaziland's Hhohho district who cultivate the drug say they are in no hurry to change crops. The problem is not confined to Africa. An estimated 200 million people worldwide use illicit drugs, which translate into 4.7 percent of the global population aged over 14, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. (END/2003)
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