Uganda
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| Uganda | |
|---|---|
| Uganda | |
| |
| Upper Bigo Bog, Rwenzori Mountains National Park | |
| Capital | Kampala |
| Continent | Africa |
| Subregion | East Africa |
| Cannabis Status | |
| Legal Status | Illegal (medical cannabis and industrial hemp licensed) |
| Status Since | 2024 |
| Enforcement | Police uproot unlicensed gardens; cultivation licensed by the health minister since 2025 |
| Documentation | |
| Growing Regions | 0 |
| Growing Areas | 0 |
| Accessions | 3 |
Uganda is a country in East Africa where cannabis, known as enjaga, supplies a small local demand and is exported to Kenya and beyond.[1]: 75 Police have destroyed cannabis gardens in the central districts, among them Luweero and Mpigi.[2][3]
Cannabis is controlled under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act of 2024, in force since 14 April 2025, under which the minister responsible for health may license the cultivation of prohibited plants.[4]: s. 11[5] The Act replaced one of 2015 that the Constitutional Court had declared null and void in May 2023 because Parliament had passed it without a quorum.[6]
Geography
Bernard Verdcourt's entry for Cannabis sativa in the Flora of Tropical East Africa (1975) reads: "Widely and illegally cultivated as a drug plant, also frequent as a weed of cultivation; 0–2100 m".[7]
In December 2013 police in Luweero District, north of Lake Victoria, destroyed eight acres of gardens at Namalimba village in Kikyusa sub-county. The village chairperson said that residents had not known of them because papyrus swamps surrounded them.[2] In April 2017 police destroyed several acres at Kampiringisa village in Mpigi District; the officer in charge said there were more than 15 acres of gardens in other villages such as Kajjaga.[3] A United Nations study of 1999 reported that some of the bhang sold in western Kenya was grown in Uganda.[8]: 21
Demographics
Communities with cannabis relationships
The missionary John Roscoe wrote in 1921 that the Basoga, the Soga people, were "addicted to smoking Indian hemp"; the Baganda, Roscoe had written in 1911, did not take to the habit. Among the Bagishu (Gisu people) of Mount Elgon, in the account of Brian du Toit, the plant spread from family to family after its introduction, probably by an Arab traveller. Purvis reported in 1909 that a Gisu man might forbid his wife to smoke it when she was about to become a mother, because of an evil effect it was said to have on her or the child.[9]: 100
In the early 1960s the densely populated Mbale region saw rising pressure on land and fluctuating coffee prices. A perception grew that theft, bhang growing, drinking, witchcraft and violence were getting out of control.[10]: 98
Agriculture
The International Narcotics Control Board counted Uganda in 2004 among the countries of eastern Africa where cannabis was a significant commercial crop.[11]: 39–40 A seed seller says that at Birere, a town near Lake Victoria where the main work is fishing and subsistence farming, most cannabis is grown between plantings of maize.[12]
In 2019 the Daily Monitor called Industrial Hemp Uganda and its partners an established firm that had worked in Kasese and other areas for about a decade.[13] In July 2025 the government granted Bright Sparks Farm an experimental licence to grow, process and export medicinal cannabis under police supervision.[14] At the annual general meeting of the Uganda Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Cooperative Society in Kampala in 2026, the state minister for internal affairs warned medical cannabis and industrial hemp investors against diverting the crop into the illicit market.[15]
Cannabis in Uganda
History
In the account of Chris Duvall, cannabis was introduced to eastern Africa from southern Asia and spread widely within Africa mostly after 1500.[16] Du Toit traced its spread inland from the coast to the Great Lakes to Swahili and Arab traders.[9]: 87
Uganda acceded to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs on 15 April 1988.[17] The National Drug Policy and Authority Act, in force from 3 December 1993, defined "Indian hemp" as the dried flowering or fruiting tops of the pistillate plant of "cannabis sativa or cannabis indica", with its resins and preparations. It prohibited the smoking of opium or Indian hemp and the cultivation of any plant yielding a narcotic drug without the written consent of the minister.[18]: ss. 1, 48–49
A Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act received assent on 9 April 2015 and came into force on 15 February 2016. It set ten to 25 years' imprisonment, or a fine, for possession of cannabis, life imprisonment for trafficking and life for a second offence of cultivating a prohibited plant.[19]: ss. 4, 5, 11 On 5 May 2023, in a petition brought by the Wakiso Miraa Growers and Dealers Association, growers of khat, the Constitutional Court declared the Act null and void for lack of a quorum in Parliament when it was passed. The judiciary stated four days later that the court had not legalised the use of marijuana. The police continued to enforce the older law.[6][20] Parliament passed a new bill on 22 August 2023; the International Narcotics Control Board noted that it allowed the cultivation of cannabis and khat strictly for medical and other authorised uses.[21]: 66 It received assent on 2 February 2024 as the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, 2024.[4]
Cultivation
The seller East Africa Genes offers seed of lines it calls landraces under Ugandan names: Birere, from a town near Lake Victoria, and Uganda Pressure, which it says is grown around Entebbe by the Baganda.[12]
Preparations and consumption
Cannabis is smoked. The police said in 2023 that it had consistently been the most used drug in Uganda, followed by cocaine.[20]
Trade and commerce
Uganda consistently reported annual seizures of more than five tons of cannabis, 2002 excepted, and 25 tons in 2003. Besides supplying a small local demand, enjaga was exported to Kenya and beyond.[1]: 75 A United Nations study of 1999 relayed the Kenyan Narcotics Bureau's estimate that about 20 per cent of the cannabis available in Kenya came from Uganda by road.[8]: 30 A University of Bristol briefing of 2024 listed Uganda among the sources of the cannabis that Kenya imports.[22] Within Uganda, a suspect arrested at Mpigi in 2017 said that a basin of marijuana sold for 25,000 shillings in the trading centres of Mpigi, Kalungu and Wakiso districts.[3] The Luweero gardens of 2013 supplied dealers in Kampala, Luweero town and Kayunga District, in the account of the village chairperson.[2]
Legal status
The Act of 2024 defines "cannabis" as the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, lists cannabis first among its prohibited plants and names "Cannabis (Indian Hemp) and Cannabis resin (Resin of Indian Hemp)" among the narcotic drugs of its second schedule. It repealed the sections of the National Drug Policy and Authority Act on narcotic drugs, Indian hemp and narcotic plants.[4]: ss. 2, 86, Schedules 2 and 4 Possession of a narcotic drug carries a fine of up to 50,000 currency points or three times the market value, whichever is greater, or up to 20 years' imprisonment, or both; a currency point is 20,000 shillings. Trafficking carries a fine on the same scale or life imprisonment, or both.[4]: ss. 4, 5, Schedule 1
The minister responsible for health may license the cultivation or gathering of a prohibited plant. Growing one without a licence carries a fine of up to 120 currency points or three times the market value, or up to five years' imprisonment, or both, and life imprisonment for a second offence.[4]: s. 11 The National Drug Authority may license the sale, manufacture, production or distribution of specified narcotic drugs for medical purposes.[4]: s. 14 The minister of internal affairs brought the Act into force on 14 April 2025.[5]
Enforcement
The police recorded 2,797 narcotics cases in 2022, against 1,668 in 2021, and charged 4,818 suspects, 137 of them juveniles.[20] In the Luweero operation of 2013 the police uprooted and destroyed the plants; in 2017 the officer in charge at Mpigi said that prisoners would destroy the remaining gardens within the week.[2][3]
Growing Regions
Landrace cannabis growing regions currently documented on the wiki: No growing regions documented yet.
Growing Areas
Landrace cannabis growing areas currently documented on the wiki: No growing areas documented yet.
Accessions
Map
List
| Accession ID | Name | Priority | Collected | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EAG-UGA-CEN-0120230001 | Uganda Pressure 2023 | |||
| EAG-UGA-UNK-0120200001 | Birere Sativa 2020 | |||
| EAG-UGA-UNK-0120200002 | Nimule Sativa 2020 |
Conservation status
Recent news
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2006). "Review of the world cannabis situation" (PDF). Bulletin on Narcotics. LVIII (1 and 2). New York: United Nations (published 2008).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "8 acres of marijuana destroyed". Daily Monitor. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Police destroy acres of marijuana gardens in Mpigi". Daily Monitor. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, 2024(Act of Parliament No. 2 of 2024), 2 February 2024.Uganda.Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act, Cap. 37 (Commencement) Instrument, 2025(Statutory Instrument No. 2025 No. 42), 9 April 2025.Uganda.Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Judiciary of Uganda (9 May 2023). "Use of marijuana not legalised by the Constitutional Court" (PDF) (Press release). Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ "Cannabis sativa L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (March 1999). The Drug Nexus in Africa (PDF) (Report). ODCCP Studies on Drugs and Crime, Monograph series 1. Vienna: United Nations.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 du Toit, B.M. (1975). "Dagga: the history and ethnographic setting of Cannabis sativa in southern Africa". In Rubin, V. (ed.). Cannabis and Culture. The Hague: Mouton. pp. 81–116. doi:10.1515/9783110812060.81.
- ↑ Pringle, Yolana (2019). Psychiatry and Decolonisation in Uganda. Mental Health in Historical Perspective. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-60095-0. ISBN 978-1-137-60094-3.
- ↑ International Narcotics Control Board (2005). Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2004 (PDF) (Report). United Nations. ISBN 92-1-148198-8. E/INCB/2004/1.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 "Pure African Strains". East Africa Genes. Retrieved 8 October 2026.
- ↑ "Inside plan to grow marijuana in Uganda". Daily Monitor. 20 April 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Wandera, Dan (24 July 2025). "Govt licenses farm to grow marijuana for medical use". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Muyobo, Karim (5 October 2026). "Cannabis growers cautioned over illicit operations". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Duvall, C.S. (2017). "Cannabis and tobacco in precolonial and colonial Africa". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.44.
- ↑ "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961". United Nations Treaty Collection. Chapter VI, 15. Retrieved 3 October 2026.
- ↑ National Drug Policy and Authority Act(Cap. 206), 3 December 1993.Uganda.Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act(Act of Parliament No. 3 of 2016), 9 April 2015.Uganda.Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Kamurungi, Elizabeth (9 May 2023). "Police to continue crackdown on drug abuse using old laws". Daily Monitor. Retrieved 12 October 2026.
- ↑ International Narcotics Control Board (2024). Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2023 (PDF) (Report). Vienna: United Nations. ISBN 978-92-1-003052-6. E/INCB/2023/1.
- ↑ Carrier, Neil; Apondi, Bernice; Rusenga, Clemence; Omenya, Gordon (July 2024). Cannabis policy in Kenya: a call for an informed and inclusive national debate (PDF) (Report). PolicyBristol Policy Briefing 151. University of Bristol.
- ↑ Welling, M.T.; Shapter, T.; Rose, T.J.; Liu, L.; Stanger, R.; King, G.J. (2016). "A belated green revolution for Cannabis: virtual genetic resources to fast-track cultivar development". Frontiers in Plant Science. 7 1113. doi:10.3389/fpls.2016.01113.