Caretaker grows 700 mbanje plants on church premise, arrested

ZRP spokesperson Paul Nyathi

The Zimbabwe Republic Police -ZRP- has arrested Lawrence Mutizwa for growing 700 mbanje plants on the church premises he works at as a caretaker.

Apparently, upon being questioned by police detectives as to why he did it, he says it was in support of government’s Command Agriculture Program.

The government recently announced that it would issue licenses to legalize production of cannabis (mbanje) for medical purposes.

“We have a variety of interests and we are considering all applications.

“This company is from Canada and it’s one of the biggest conglomerates in that country and they are producing cannabis for medical purposes under strict conditions.

“I don’t see anything wrong and I think if we legalise mbanje we will benefit medically because it is used for pain killers such as morphine. South Africa has done that,” a government minister once said.

Medical cannabis, also termed medical marijuana is a drug prescribed by doctors for patients to reduce nausea, vomiting and improve appetite but its use has not been widely tested due to production restrictions and other governmental regulations.

Zwnews