June last year laid the groundwork for The drafting of a law seeking to establish the rules and regulations in the use of narcotics in our healthcare system. This provoked a lot of controversy due to the implications behind using marijuana for medical purposes, a substance that is illegal in many countries around the world.

The use of the drug in the medical sense proposed the possibility of it having inadvertent consequences in its regulation and control, perhaps promoting the use of recreational marijuana.

This move undoubtedly raised a couple of eyebrows with claims of Rwanda being the only nation in Africa to do so. However, the draft law is nothing out of the ordinary. This would be because of the very well known and widespread use of narcotics in the medical world. Morphin and Opium, which are both illegal substances are drugs whose properties are used occasionally to relieve pain or anesthetise.

Such drugs have resultantly made a substantial contribution to the pharmaceutical industry. Despite its negative reputation, marijuana has been proven to have medical properties that are used in the treatment of many diseases and conditions such as cancer or AIDS.

“Marijuana is classified as a psyhoctropic drug and the healthcare system in Rwanda, which is under the convention with the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in Vienna, simply drafted a law in the parliament that would help in the regulation and control in the use of this drug,” says Alex Ruzindana, the officer in charge of Pharmaceutical Information Pharmacy Task Force within the Ministry of Health.

“It has completely nothing to do with the legalisation of marijuana. It is strictly for medicinal and research purposes. In fact, it is not even administered as a herbal drug , but rather its components are used and integrated into other substances making its administration come in other forms. ”

According to Ruzindana, the law is in concord with the INCB, and its infringement would therefore go beyond the realm of the medicine thus leaving the issue to be dealt with by the authorities. He adds that medical Marijuana would only be prescribed by a specialised physician and its use would be significantly limited.

“Other countries across the world have taken a further step by establishing pharmacies that specialise only in the sale of medical marijuana that come in various forms. But we have not implemented that at all. The use of this drug is only exclusive to the prescription given out by the doctor according to the patients needs,” says Ruzindana.

He advises that due to the strictness in the prescription of the medicine, misconceptions should not arise when it comes to the consummation of this drug. Marijuana remains highly illegal outside the medical world and its distribution in limited dosages will continue to remain exclusive to the medical domain.