Malawi to hire South African choppers to destroy cannabis farms

Malawi planned to charter aircraft from South Africa to conduct what it called “the biggest operation” to destroy cannabis fields in remote parts of the country, Malawian police said on Tuesday. AFP quoted police spokesman Oliver Soko as saying that they needed spray planes and helicopters to destroy hundreds of hectares of cannabis field which were inaccessible by road.

“We know where the fields are, mostly in hilly areas and thick forests where our vehicles cannot reach,” he was quoted as saying. Soko said the helicopters would be hired under the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCO), which groups 12 national police services in the region together to fight crime syndicates. He said the plan followed an operation over the Easter holidays which revealed large-scale cannabis farming in some of the most fertile areas of the country.

According to the report, many families in Malawi had switched from growing food crops such as maize to cultivating cannabis because of its lucrative and ready market. Malawian cannabis, dubbed “Malawi gold”, is prized in the region, although growing, smoking or selling it is illegal. Last year Malawi signed an accord with two specialised UN agencies to deal with the problem of cannabis production and trafficking.

It added that Malawian legislators last year caused a stir in parliament when they suggested legalising cannabis growing as an alternative to tobacco, the country’s main source of foreign exchange, threatened by the international anti-smoking campaign.