Cannabis – Lotfi: « Morocco is required to review the medically and scientifically outmoded laws… »
Morocco’s NGO « Network for Defending the Right to Health and the right to Life », headed by Ali Lotfi, called on the government and the Ministry of Interior to confront those opposing the draft law related to the legal use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, in line with the resolutions and recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
In its statement, the network clarified that the parliamentary teams called on the government to adopt the recommendations stipulated by WHO regarding the use of cannabis for medical purposes, and urged the latter to invest in the pharmaceutical industry, cosmetics, agricultural industry, textiles and construction, as well as scientific research related to the field.
In light of Morocco’s ratification of the aforementioned recommendations at the 63rd Ordinary Session of the UN’s Drug Committee, in Vienna, on March 2, 2020, the NGO stated that that our country is bound to respect the UN’s resolution in this regard, by reviewing the laws subject to medical and scientific transcendence, legalize the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes and encourage investment in this field.
Hit added that the move will create an independent national agency with a comprehensive vision and strategy that ensure respect for the conditions to be followed in cannabis cultivation, production, marketing and export, in addition to monitoring, tracking and evaluating its health and economic effects, encouraging scientific research, as well as opening up to medical and pharmaceutical colleges, institutes and laboratories, that are dedicated to scientific research in the fields of medicine, cosmetics, construction, textile, paper-making, automobile industries, agriculture, animal foods, and nutritional components meant for human consumption, such as vitamins, minerals and acids.
The NGO also stated that the legalization of cannabis has gained momentum in over 50 countries, including 60% of European countries, the United States and Canada, noting that the medicinal cannabis plant is sold in pharmacies all over Germany and the Netherlands, as part of their patients’ prescribed treatments, for the latter eases their pain due to their severe illnesses.
