Namibia is currently the frontline in the battle for cannabis reform.

The country recentlywitnessed two marches in quick succession to protest draconian anti-drug laws that stigmatise cannabis, organised by the leading pro-cannabis body, Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN).  Incarcerated GUN President Brian Jaftha followed that up with a hunger strike and a petition to the president. In an unprecedented development, the Office of the Presidency responded, open to engagement, perhaps, but not real change.

GUN also petitioned United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies including the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, regarding the antiquated anti-cannabis laws that it criticises for perpetuating the economic and social marginalisation of large sectors of society, arguing that the laws are skewed against the dispossessed majority but lenient towards corporations.

Constitutionality of Cannabis Ban is Heading for the High Court in Windhoek

On 2 July 2025, three judges of the Windhoek High Court will hear oral arguments in a challenge by Jaftha and GUN Secretary General Borro Ndungula contesting the constitutionality of the ban on cannabis, in the latest in what has proved thus far to be an eventful year in efforts to have cannabis legalised.

The country of just under three million boasts a sizable base of regular cannabis users, estimated at about 10% of the population. However, the retention of colonial-era legislation criminalises use and possession with hefty penalties. The result is that in its corner of southern Africa, Namibia is now the lone prohibitionist holdout.  Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi have legalised cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes, with Botswana set to join the reformists next, having partially legalised already.

The wave of legalisation sweeping across the region therefore leaves Namibia isolated and the vast largely desert country carries all the metaphoric signposts that point to the ills that manifest when a society continues to defy unfolding international science-based trends and changing norms.

Government appears blind to the data

Even when presented with foolproof data attesting to the efficacy of medicinal cannabis to relieve chronic pain, the government keeps pussyfooting. Last year, the Ministry of Health and Social Services shut the door to the commercial cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use with former Health Minister Kalumbi Shangula announcing that Namibia did not need cannabis therapeutic intervention because existing treatments were effective enough.

For Angela Prusa, founder of Cannabis and Hemp Association of Namibia (CHAN), Shangula’s pronouncement felt like a gut punch. She castigated the decision as not being based on the available evidence, pointing out that cannabis was uniquely positioned as a worthy medicinal alternative for pain relief, more so for its comparatively minimal side effects.

CHAN works in collaboration with GUN, Rasta United Front (RUF) of Namibia and Medical Marijuana Association of Namibia (MMAN) to promote law reform with special focus on compassion and harm reduction, guided by current scientific research, evidence-based practices and international human rights standards, according to its website.

Cannabis treatments could help Namibia's public health crisis

Nevertheless, the latest developments in Namibia contradict government’s assertions that cannabis has no role to play in the health sector, in multiple ways. For starters, state hospitals are grappling with a shortage of basic medicines including anaesthetics and current Health Minister Esperance Luvindao is on the backfoot as her department desperately attempts to contain the fallout from ongoing reports of a malfunctioning health system.

Earlier this month, The Namibian newspaper ran with a lead that detailed a heath crisis at Rundu State Hospital in the north of the country, the worst affected public health facility, where patients were reportedly being turned away due to a lack of medicines, forcing only emergency surgery to be performed. Patients on the waiting list for surgery were reportedly being asked to wait until such times as necessary hospital supplies had been procured, with Windhoek Central Hospital, Katutura Intermediate Hospital and Keetmanshoop Hospital also reportedly hit by the shortage of anaesthetics.

In situations such as these where mainstream health intervention is delayed while patients are made to endure excruciating pain, medicinal cannabis ceases to be an alternative pain relief pathway but the saving grace.

One does sense that the government is being led by a defensive instead of proactive approach, sticking with conservative attitudes that match its unwillingness to do away with outdated legislation that campaigners are up against and that dates back to when the drug was routinely listed among Class A substances globally.  One pro-cannabis campaigner has intimated that “the government is using cannabis to fight the people” and it would be difficult to argue that the seemingly overblown statement is entirely without merit.

As the government continues to look the other way, a pro-legalisation campaigner in Windhoek who spoke to Cannabis Africa testified that cannabis had helped him cope with pain for suspected rheumatoid arthritis and helped ease his recovery from the removal of a gall bladder.

The patient, a human rights strategist working with CHAN and GUN and who collaborates with Rasta United Front (RUF) of Namibia and Medical Marijuana Association of Namibia (MMAN), believes in its refusal to co-opt cannabis into the basket of available health alternatives the government is cutting its own foot.

Cannabis in Namibia has become a human rights issue

He argues that the government’s stringently prohibitionist stance has resulted in the violations of a series of human rights for cannabis users and the denial of basic rights and freedoms, thanks to the blind applications of restrictions.

As a lawsuit brought by Jaftha against the government from behind bars has illustrated, cannabis has become central to human rights in Namibia.

In a cruel twist of irony, Jaftha filed the lawsuit for N$1.25-million after Correctional Services forcibly cut his dreadlocks. The case is symbolic in its seeming to highlight the way in which cannabis is a socio-economic as well as a political issue, given questions of the right to dignity and identity involved.

Interestingly, the Office of the Ombudsman has ruled in Jaftha’s favour, stating that the rights to religious and cultural expression, equality, non-discrimination and the right to privacy are protected in Namibia’s constitution and that any restrictions though essential had to be “necessary, reasonable and proportional”.

Some of the human rights violations the ongoing ban on cannabis is seen to perpetuate include:

Religious Rights and Cultural Expression

Cannabis forms the ritualistic core of Rastafarianism and as long as existing laws remain in place Rastas cannot practice their religion freely.  The proscription of use and possession in terms of the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971 has led to the victimisation and misery of ordinary Rastafari practitioners as they are liable to arrest at any time without due recourse to a fair legal justice system.

Traditionally, cannabis has been known to treat a variety of conditions in some indigenous communities and its historical profile in Namibia is well-documented.

Economic Marginalisation

The GUN petition to the United Nations questions prohibitions that prevent the poor from cultivating hemp and using cannabis for cultural and health reasons as corporations and big retail chains profit off of a range of hemp-based products. An inventory of hemp-based products leaked to Cannabiz Africa shows that outlets including Dischem, Shoprite Checkers, Spar and Food Lover’s Market carry a number of items that are clearly marked as containing hemp.

Dischem stocks hemp-infused hair conditioner, CBD muscle and joint cream and a wide range of revitalising shampoo; Shoprite Checkers carries a range of men’s Vaseline lotion (marked “extra hydration”, “soothing” and “even tone”) containing hemp seed oil; Spar has OCB, hemp seed oil and organic hemp items, in a vast in-store range while Food Lover’s Market boasts organic hemp powder and hemp seed hemp powder foodstuffs.

Apart from exclusion from this full-blown commercial trade in which big business is seen to be the sole beneficiaries, locals are also locked out of a potentially buoyant cannabis tourism industry they would profit from were the government to go ahead with legalisation as have most of its neighbouring counterparts.

Cannabis Africa contacted a tourism entrepreneur in Swakopmund who teaches dozens of overseas visitors at a heritage museum that specialises in Namibia’s dark chapter under German rule. Asked whether legalisation would be beneficial to his business, he replied: “Cannabis is prohibited in Namibia”, a terse response that underlines how continuing prohibition also undercuts the right to free speech.

Freedom from Discrimination and to Equality before the Law

The case of Ellest ‘Speedy’ Plaatjie has become a cause célèbre and a ready reference for cannabis activists seeking to draw attention to the effects of Namibia’s failure to overhaul age-old anti-drug laws. Plaatje (31) was arrested and assaulted by police in January 2023 for possessing a small bag of cannabis, which he was known to use to treat the seizures he suffered from.

He died six days later at a Windhoek hospital where he had been transferred, leaving behind distraught parents whose quest for justice for their deceased son has been frustrated by apparent police stonewalling. Murder charges against the two police officers charged with Plaatje’s death have been withdrawn, to the outrage of human rights campaigners and the public alike.

Jaftha’s conviction in October 2023 is another case in point. He had to forfeit a motor vehicle valued at N$160 000 after being found in possession of less than 100g of cannabis estimated to be worth under N$2 000. The forfeiture was in line with provisions for cannabis possession which do not apply to other offences, including violent crimes.

These are some of the cases GUN and activists cite to motivate for the lifting of the ban on cannabis in the country.

Also, the continuing ban on medicinal cannabis withholds the right to choose for those who see cannabis as a suitable and preferred alternative for their health and wellbeing.  

Change could be on the horizon

Cannabis activists are taking heart from a stirring address delivered by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk in Colombia last month, in which he called on governments to adopt harm reduction measures as a more sustainable practice to ensuring peace and human rights, in place of criminalisation and prohibition when it comes to drug regulations.

“War on drugs” policies were contributing to stigmatisation and discrimination against indigenous peoples and people of African descent and it was high time for evidence-based drug policies grounded in public health to take effect, Türk stated.

With the Office of the Presidency in Namibia having communicated with campaigners calling for legalisation for the first time, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic among the pro-cannabis lobby. Türk has stressed multi-stakeholder collaboration as an effective tool to navigating the drugs quagmire.

Also, cannabis enthusiasts have reminded newly- elected President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s that her call to prioritise agriculture should be inclusive to incorporate cannabis cultivation in order to benefit disadvantaged communities.

But for now, the fight continues in Namibia.

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