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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Uganda: Uganda On UN Cannabis Growers' List
Frank Nyakairu The Monitor, Kampala
Thursday 03 Mar 2005 A United Nations report cites Uganda among the leading growers of the illegal drug, cannabis. Independent information also suggests that Uganda is a major transit point for heroin. The 2004 annual United Nations International Narcotic Control Board report released yesterday, says Uganda is one of the East African countries where "cannabis constitutes a significant commercial crop." The other countries are the Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Ethiopia and Madagascar. The report says cannabis has remained "the most abused illicit drug in most African countries." Cannabis locally known as enjaga is an illegal drug made from the dried leaves and flowers of a variety of the Hemp plant. It produces a pleasant feeling of relaxation when smoked or eaten. According to Police anti-narcotics statistics for 2004, the districts of Busia, Bugiri and Rakai are the leading growers of cannabis in the country. An anti-narcotics officer who preferred anonymity said there are "tens of thousands" of acres across Uganda "where people have resorted to growing [Cannabis] as a cash crop." The crop, mostly grown in Busia and Bugiri in eastern Uganda, is usually shipped to Kenya where chemical plants turn it into hashish, which gets trafficked to the United States and Europe. Police information also indicates that drug lords have resorted to using university students to traffic in heroin from Pakistan to the US. Police sources say Ugandan youths and students have mainly been used a carriers of heroin. "They mainly visit Peshawar (a Pakistani city on the Afghan border), spend there a week and come back with heroin," an anti-narcotics detective told The Monitor yesterday. He said heroin is usually disguised in items ranging from document folders to shoe soles and sometimes swallowed in form of pellets. Heroin is a highly addictive drug and is considered the most abused and most rapidly acting opiate. The police anti-narcotics squad seized 6.5 kilogrammes in 2004 worth $200,000 (Shs340 million). About 10,000 kilogrammes of cannabis were seized. A total of 791 male suspects were arrested, 110 of whom were convicted. Uganda's only drug-sniffer dog was poisoned in 1996 and two new ones were only acquired last year. The International Anti-narcotics Control Board called upon the international community to "provide appropriate assistance and support to States in the region to enhance their efforts to combat drug trafficking and abuse."
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