•MR Sinkamba on a campaign trail in Chingola and Kitwe recently. Picture courtesy of The Independent Observer.
By SAM PHIRI
MARIJUANA, once mentioned, evokes conviction of a seemingly endless battle between a relatively large group of consumers and law enforcers; a fight Peter Sinkamba wishes to put to bed with a single word “Legalise,” once voted as president.
Mr Sinkamba is the founder and president of the Green Party of Zambia and believes that by adding an extra freedom of cultivating and creating a free trade for marijuana, Zambia will be a better place to live in.
He sees the economy of the country triple, should the commercial cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purpose be introduced in the country-a vision he hopes to actualise when he forms government.
He sees marijuana as a major economic booster that would help ‘heal’ the nation as it is one of his Party’s 36 policy interventions in agriculture.
“A lot of youths and adults have been arrested for growing Marijuana, but as the Green Party, we think that instead of arresting these people, we shall legalise production in high security zones where the systems shall be very tight. People who will work in these zones shall work as cooperatives under the Zambia National Service (ZNS) producing marijuana strictly for exports,” he says.
One wonders what could have been going round Mr Sinkamba’s mind when the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and state Police raided Chibolya Township in a clean-up exercise to weed out illegal drug dealing especially marijuana.
“There was little if not nothing we could do because there is a law already that restricts any usage of marijuana,” he says.
Looking at the large population of those using this herb for various reasons like ranging from commercial, hair growth, ear problems and indeed the common leisure smoking, it could be easy conviction for Mr Sinkamba that a huge number of clandestine users will come out to give him that much needed ballot.
The Green Party president is of view that Zambians need to think outside the box by looking beyond copper production which according to his research is less lucrative compared to marijuana.
The economy, at the moment, is in troubled waters largely due to operational problems in the mining sector, coupled with the depressed demand for base metals on the international market.
Copper prices have declined from almost US$10,000 to $6,000 per ton and continue to slide downwards.
“We need to ‘go green’ and forget about windfalls until at least two decades from now,” he says.
According to his research at the moment, the cost of medicinal marijuana to the end user is dictated by Colorado and Netherlands, and stands at eight Euros per gram (€8/g).
Consumption by an average patient is between 32 to 37 grams a month. In monetary terms, this is €240 per month per patient.
Illicit marijuana production in Zambia at the moment stands at an all-time high. Since 2009,DEC seizes between 30-50metric tonnes per annum.
This is what he calls as waste as he feels that if sold as medicinal marijuana abroad, at current market for an end user, the seizures would yield in range between €240 million and €400 million per annum.
In dollar terms, this is between $330 million and $500 million.
The seized marijuana by DEC is actually less than 10 per cent of total production countrywide; meaning 90 per cent is done as a clandestine arrangement equating to well above 500 tonnes per annum.
“It is not only used for people to go ‘high’, as it appears to have been perceived by some quarters, including Government.
Marijuana has active ingredients that are used in most drugs that cure cancers, HIV-infection, glaucoma, spinal cord injury, disk pro-lapse, asthma, hepatitis C, back pain, migraines, sleeping disorders, epilepsy, spasticity, headaches, alcoholism,” he says.
Due to the criminalisation of cultivation and trade, suppliers are very few leaving Colorado, Netherlands, Canada, and Israel among the currently the leading suppliers of ligalised cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purpose.
Born on August 7, 1964 Mr Sinkamba is not new on the political front though analysing his political trail involving MMD, National Democratic Alliance (NADA) and National Conservative Party (NCP), it seems like uncertainty supersedes his loyalty.
Others have described him as one who is too nippy in making decisions hence casting doubts of whether he will maintain his faith in his newly founded political party through thick and thin though he looks confident and detained.
It will be easy to do so if he won the presidency, but has he developed enough muscle to wrestle down other presidential heavyweights?
“If I analyse all the presidential hopefuls, there is no heavyweight for me maybe only Brig Gen Miyanda because I have more political experience than most president of these presidential candidates,” he believes.
With such confidence Mr Sinkamba can see a new Zambia with a sound economy that will end the abject poverty the key being the cultivation and exporting of Marijuana for medicinal purpose.
Founded in May, 2013, the Green Party has a history of having tasted the waters of by-elections at two local government elections in Kitwe Ward and Mpulungu where its candidates came out second to the ruling PF.
The party has also participated in one parliamentary by-election were it emerged fourth.
Now the million Kwacha question is; coming out second on the local government elections, fourth in the parliamentary what about the top most job of republican presidency?
