Aletta Shikololo
WINDHOEK – Ganja Users of Namibia (GUN) and Rastafari United Front (RUF), both non-profit making advocacy groups, are organising a peaceful march to hand over a petition to the Speaker of Parliament.
Guided by Namibian Constitution’s Article 17 that all citizens are allowed to participate in peaceful political activity intended to influence the policies of the government, the two groups will protest against the illegalisation of cannabis in Namibia, they said.
Gun President Brian Jaftha said the petition aims to revisit, question and challenge the abuse of dependence-producing substances and the Rehabilitation Centres Act of 1971, which is an obsolete apartheid law.
“We believe the law should be amended or repealed immediately as it is undermining our constitutional rights and freedoms guaranteed to us by the supreme law of Namibia,” stressed Jaftha.
According to Jaftha, despite well-documented beneficial medical effects even when smoked, the state and the corporate pharmaceutical industry gives false claims about cannabis to the contrary.
He complained that the effect of the prohibition of cannabis is that users of cannabis are stigmatised in the eye of broader society as criminals.
The march is to start at Katutura’s B1 City this Friday, 19 April, from 08h00 and demostrators will be walking through Independence Avenue all the way to Ausspannplatz area near Angola House.