Sri Lankan President Tasks Officials With Looking Into Cannabis Legalization

Cannabis legalization is about to expand exponentially across the globe in the coming years. So far only Uruguay and Canada have legalized cannabis for adult use, however, more countries are moving in that direction.

Mexico’s Supreme Court struck down cannabis prohibition in late 2018 and tasked lawmakers with implementing adult-use cannabis legalization. That is expected to finally happen in 2021 after several delays.

Israel is another country that is expected to legalize cannabis for adult use by the end of 2021. Only time will tell if that actually happens, but the odds look very favorable right now.

When it comes to cannabis legalization, one country that is probably not high on everyone’s radar, but should be, is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s president recently tasked officials with exploring the benefits of cannabis legalization. Per Daily Mirror:

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said a policy decision has to be taken to legalise the cannabis in Sri Lanka in order to develop it as a medicinal crop in the future.

The President was responding to a proposal made by an academic at his recent meeting of the series of programmes launched as ‘Discussion with the Village’ (Gama samaga pilisandarak), held at Aluthwewa Grama Niladhari Division in Thanamalvila, Monaragala on Saturday.

President Rajapaksa directed state officials to look into the avenues of creating a policy decision in this regard and was instantly briefed by the latter about the present situation in legalising the plant.

The cannabis plant has a long history in Sri Lanka, referred to there as ‘Kansa.’ Cannabis has historically been used in Sri Lanka in many Ayurvedic and ‘Hela’ medicines.

Hopefully that rich history, along with the clear benefits of ending cannabis prohibition, will push reform over the top in Sri Lanka sooner rather than later.