马拉维批准工业种植大麻试验

AS IT IS 2015-11-03 Hemp¹ on Trial in Malawi 马拉维批准工业种植大麻试验

In Malawi, the government has approved plans to grow industrial hemp for export on a trial or temporary basis.

The government’s decision followed years of heated debate. The proposal continues to meet resistance from anti-drug activists² and religious leaders.

Industrial hemp and marijuana are from the same family of crops. But industrial hemp does not contain the psychoactive chemical agents found in marijuana, the plant known as chamba in Malawi.

Last May, parliament member Boniface Kadzamira asked lawmakers to reconsider the plant's economic abilities. In his country, he says, people used to think that chamba caused madness and crime. He said people now understand that industrial hemp is purely³ a money-making crop. 

Industrial hemp can be used to make paper, cloth, medicine and even food products.

But the government’s decision has anti-drug campaigners worried. Nelson Zakeyu is director of Drug Fight Malawi, a local non-governmental organization.

"That will just give an easy access to marijuana. The country will have so many problems.  Some of the problems are shootings and suicides as it is in some states in the U.S., like California."

Tony Burden is director of Herbarium, a South African company.

He says industrial hemp is very different from marijuana.

"We will have to bring in the certified⁴ low-drug varieties. And they come from Europe so we have to see if they can grow here in Malawi. If they don't grow then we have to look around Malawi to see if maybe there is also industrial hemp in Malawi or we can see if we can make new varieties that grow well for Malawi's climate."

Joseph Chidanti Malunga is deputy chairperson of the parliamentary committee on agriculture. He told local radio that hemp will help the local economy.

"I understand the money it fetches is more than what tobacco would fetch for a given unit area. So we think that if we go this direction, we might even surpass what even what we get from tobacco."

But religious leaders disagree. Dinala Chabulika is with the Muslims Association of Malawi.

"Whether it is going to boost the economy or not, it is not acceptable. There is no inner permission Islam gives to any drug or something that would disturb the intelligence of a human being. So our recommendation is it should not be done."     

The government has approved trial crops of industrial hemp starting next year at an agriculture research station in the capital, Lilongwe.

Words in This Story

composition – n. the way in which something is put together  

variety – n. a collection of different things

fetch – v. to go after and bring back something

surpass – v. to be better or greater than something

boost – v. to increase the amount of something

1 hemp   

n.大麻；纤维

参考例句：

• The early Chinese built suspension bridges of hemp rope.古代的中国人建造过麻绳悬索桥。
• The blanket was woven from hemp and embroidered with wool.毯子是由亚麻编织，羊毛镶边的。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

4 certified   

a.经证明合格的；具有证明文件的

参考例句：

• Doctors certified him as insane. 医生证明他精神失常。
• The planes were certified airworthy. 飞机被证明适于航行。