“When we developed the idea in 2011, we tried different strains.
“It’s like God’s garden — in the middle of a green area, surrounded by the mountains around Kasese,” Sosinsky said, explaining that the location on the equator was crucial for cannabis cultivation.
First, he set up a power supply and hired more than 100 workers from the surrounding communities.
As a result, the number of medical practises issuing these prescriptions has increased tenfold in the past three years.
But he has an idea: Worldwide, there are more than 25,000 cannabis cultivation licenses, but only about 20 licenses for importation into the German market.
For Hoffmann, one thing is certain: There will be a strong demand for medicinal cannabis and even stimulants in the coming years, both in Germany and in the European Union.
“Africa has a responsibility to play a leading role in the cultivation and processing of cannabis,” said Hoffmann.
Unlike 200 years ago, hemp plants in the country are completely out of the public eye, paving the way for myths generated from the camps of supporters and opponents alike.
French soldiers, who took home hashish made from the resin of female cannabis plants from Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign in 1798, played a key role in spreading it.
The only evidence: in 1890, her personal physician John Russel Reynolds noted in a medical journal the “great value” of cannabis in treating an array of conditions.
That’s not quite true: the document, vacuum-sealed and behind thick panes of glass at the National Archives in Washington, DC, was written on parchment paper.
“Reefer Madness,” originally financed by a church group under the title “Tell Your Childen,” was a 1936 US propaganda movie that depicted young people as immediately addicted, violent and crazy after consuming cannabis.
Back then, Harry Anslinger, the racist head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, had been fighting for prohibition since the 1930s.