Weed Nation: All hail Ghana, Africa’s ganja king
You need to start showing some respect for your Ghanaian friends. Their countrymen are the highest consumers of marijuana, also known as Indian hemp, in Africa.
They consume so much pot they rank third in the world, leaving the rest of Africa in their wake like Usian Bolts does to opponents on the track.
Ghana ranks 3rd on the 2015 global rankings of countries where Cannabis Sativa, as marijuana is also called, is consumed. United Nations ranked them world’s number one in 2014.
The top global spot has now been taken by North Korea, where marijuana is so legal it’s sold at food markets.
Cambodia comes in second place. Nigeria, where 15% of the 180 million people are believed to smoke pot, comes in eighth place.
World marijuana “league table”: the top 15 “blowers”
- North Korea
- Cambodia
- Ghana
- The Netherlands
- Uruguay
- Iceland
- Czech Republic
- Nigeria
- Jamaica
- Portugal
- The United States of America
- New Zealand
- Zambia
- Spain
- Australia
Ghana’s Upper East Regional Minister, Albert Abongo, said he doesn’t like the fact that Ghana is doing so well on the marijuana “league table.”
“The most abused drug globally is marijuana with estimated users of 140 million people under the age of 30 years,” Abongo said during an anti-drug-abuse event.
“Ghana is Africa’s leading user of marijuana and third in the world. In Ghana, 65% of students who abuse marijuana do so to have good time with friends. The use of drugs is highest in the three regions in the north of Ghana and appears to be increasing in the Upper East Region along with alcohol use amongst the youth and women.”
He said the trend is not good. Marijuana abuse, like all other drug abuse, can lead to mental disorder, research shows.
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