Syed Saddiq Forms Nine MP Committee To Study Legalisation of Medical Marijuana & Ketum

Marijuana. Cannabis. Ganja. The devil’s lettuce.

The plant has many names, and a much maligned history. It was outlawed in many territories worldwide circa mid-20th century in the wake of archaic, colonialist laws which sought to exercise control over their subservient encomiendas (or subjugated populace, or even colonies).

In Malaysia, the law which governs weed is the 1952 Dangerous Drugs Act, passed as an ordinance by the British and later subsumed into law after independence.

In no uncertain terms, the legislation made the importation, exportation, manufacture, sale, and use of a litany of drugs illegal. The expressed aim, as the prevalent thought was then, was that these substances are unqualified ills that ought to be eradicated from society.

In the decades since, there has been a growing revisiting of the role drugs play in modern society.

The subsequent black market which was created by these…