The Ministry of Health says it has enough medicines to treat various ailments without the introduction of medicinal marijuana.

And the Ministry of Health says no one should even waste time applying for a permit to cultivate medicinal marijuana.

In an interview, Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr Kennedy Malama said in an interview that Marijuana was a hard substance to manage.

“Regarding the procedure for obtaining a license if someone wants to cultivate cannabis or marijuana for medicinal purposes, let me put it on record that as the Ministry of Health, we have not issued any licenses or permit and that at the moment, we are not able issue that permit,” Dr Malama said.

“I mean the question we can ask you is ‘is there a drug which is missing which you would want to replace with marijuana for medicinal purposes?’ That is the question…your question is on the medicinal use of marijuana, so if we are to answer your question as a Ministry, we are not in a hurry because at the moment, we do have relevant medicine to treat our people for various ailments. For a substance like marijuana, you need to do your homework very well, because it’s not an easy substance to manage as a country if you opened it up.”

And he said that no one should waste time applying for permits to cultivate Marijuana.

“Let me also mention that yes, Marijuana has a number of uses, some could be positive but others could actually be detrimental to human life. What is on the ground at the moment is that as a Ministry, we are not issuing any license or permit,” Dr Malama said.

“But I think for now what is key is to inform our people that Ministry of Health is not giving any permit or license for someone to cultivate marijuana for whatever purposes. For now, people should not be coming to the ministry or trying to apply for any license related to that subject,” said Dr Malama, adding that the Ministry would issue a comprehensive on the matter following numerous queries from the public.