LUSAKA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's opposition Green Party said on Friday that it will be filing a law suit against the government following its decision to refuse to grant licenses to people who wanted to cultivate marijuana for medicinal purposes.
In a ministerial statement issued in parliament in March this year, Minister of Home Affairs Steven Kampyongo had revealed that the law provides for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes.
He, however said all those intending to venture into cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes needed to obtain licenses from the Ministry of Health.
But in a ministerial statement released in parliament on Thursday, Ministry of Health Chitalu Chilufya said the government had no intention of giving out any licenses to allow for the cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes as the plant was harmful to human beings regardless of the means of consumption.
He said marijuana consists of more than 400 chemicals, including many toxic psychoactive chemicals and that it would be irresponsible to allow such toxic substances to be administered to Zambians.
But the Green Party, which has pledged to legalize marijuana if it formed government and had applied for a license to start cultivation of the plant for medicinal purposes, said it was shocked with the minister's decision.
Peter Sinkamba, the party's president said it was shocking that the minister could refuse to issue licenses for cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes when this was provided for in the country's laws.
"As the Green Party, we are extremely disappointed that a minister can have the audacity to cherry-pick which laws to enforce and which laws to illogically ignore, even when duly advised by a fellow cabinet minister," he said in a statement.
"We will therefore be filing a multi-billion dollar suit against government in the Constitutional Court next week," he added.
The party, he said, will seek to establish the constitutionality of the minister's behavior to cherry-pick which laws to abide by and which laws to impugn and also seek to establish whether it was constitutional for the minister to willfully deny Zambians a choice of medicines which are lawfully legislated.
