Newsbrief: Efforts to Suppress Swaziland Marijuana Crop Founder on Poverty, Medical Need, UN Says 12/17/04

Drug War Chronicle, recent top items

more...

recent blog posts "In the Trenches" activist feed

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!!!


https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/367/swaziland.shtml

According to a report from the United Nations' Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) Monday, smallholder farmers in the southern African nation of Swaziland are ignoring efforts to suppress the marijuana crop because it provides cash income and medicine. Virtually surrounded by the country of South Africa, Swaziland is afflicted by extreme poverty and an AIDS infection rate estimated at 40% for adults, according to UN figures.

While police consistently raid and arrest small pot farmers, they are not making a dent in the trade, IRIN reported. Authorities had resorted to aerial eradication of marijuana, or "dagga" as it is known locally, but gave that up for budgetary reasons in 2002. Since then, manual eradication has been the responsibility of small teams of police officers, who are not making much headway.

"The interdiction of dagga and the eradication of crops continue as government policy, and there are arrests. But it hasn't dented cultivation much in the northern Hhohho region, or really cut into the supply going to the urban areas," a source with the Royal Swaziland Police Force told IRIN.

According to a study by Swaziland's Council on Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Abuse, 70% of smallholder farmers in the Hhohho region grow marijuana as a cash crop. One Hhohho farmer told IRIN why.

"My father and his father grew dagga here; my son now knows how. We are far from markets, and the trucks from the marketing board are unreliable. The marketing board tells us to grow tomatoes and such for sale, but our harvests can rot in the sun waiting for them," said a farmer near the provincial capital, Pigg's Peak.

Two-thirds of Swazis live in poverty, according to the UN, and many live on rural Swazi Nation Land, where peasants cannot own their farms or find the capital for improvements like irrigation or better seed stock for licit crops. "I can get kicked off my land, and I can never do much, growing maize on our small plot, but I can always find a nook somewhere to grow dagga," a farmer told IRIN.

Dagga isn't just a cash crop, farmers said. They admitted to IRIN to supplying marijuana to the growing number of people suffering from AIDS in the country, a move that has been abetted by AIDS support groups, who say dagga encourages the appetite of AIDS sufferers. "Particularly when you are starting with the anti-retroviral drugs, your body can feel bad and you don't want to eat anything -- that is when people become thin," Eunice Simelane of Swazis for Positive Living told IRIN.

-- END --
Link to Drug War Facts
Please make a generous donation to support Drug War Chronicle in 2007!          

PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Issue #367 -- 12/17/04

Drug War Chronicle, recent top items

more...

recent blog posts "In the Trenches" activist feed

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!!!

Editorial: He Would Not Torture | Dr. Hurwitz Convicted on 50 Counts, Faces Life in Prison | DEA Blocks Private Marijuana Research Grow, Path to FDA Approval | DRCNet Interview: Member of the British Parliament Paul Flynn | Investigative Journalist, "Dark Alliance" Author Gary Webb Dead at Age 49 | DRCNet Joins the Blogosphere With New "Prohibition and the Media" Critique | Ayahuasca Church Wins Temporary Victory in Supreme Court | Newsbrief: New Jersey Lawmakers to Ask Court to Stop Needle Exchange Programs | Newsbrief: Reefer Madness Threatens Hawkeye State, Iowa Drug Czar Warns | Newsbrief: Family Files $100 Million Lawsuit in Kenneth Walker Killing | Newsbrief: Alaska District Attorney to Challenge 1975 Court Decision Protecting Marijuana Possession by Adults | Newsbrief: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories | Newsbrief: British Government Tripping on Magic Mushroom Policy | Newsbrief: World's First Random Drug Test of Drivers Results in World's First Random Drugged Driver Bust and Threat of World's First Lawsuit Against the Practice | Newsbrief: Efforts to Suppress Swaziland Marijuana Crop Founder on Poverty, Medical Need, UN Says | Newsbrief: Islamic Militants Kill Russian Drug Cops, Claim They Were Dealers | Web Scan: Afghan Poppies, European Hep C | Apply Now to Intern at DRCNet! | Internship Opportunities at MPP | DrugWarMarket.com Seeking Information, Affiliates, Link Exchanges | The Reformer's Calendar


This issue -- main page
This issue -- single-file printer version
Drug War Chronicle -- main page
Chronicle archives
Out from the Shadows HEA Drug Provision Drug War Chronicle Perry Fund DRCNet en Español Speakeasy Blogs About Us Home
Why Legalization? NJ Racial Profiling Archive Subscribe Donate DRCNet em Português Latest News Drug Library Search
special friends links: SSDP - Flex Your Rights - IAL - Drug War Facts

StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 [email protected]