Lesotho has become the first African country to permit the legal cultivation of cannabis-but the production of the drug has been restricted to two foreign-owned companies, while rural  farmers and the wider population continue to be prohibited from harvesting their own.

Lesotho is a landlocked country, entirely encircled by South Africa with a population of a little over two million.

Almost a year ago, on the 28th February 2017, Lesotho’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare granted a Prohibited Drug Operator Licence to the Pharmaceutical Development Company(PDC) Ltd, to legally cultivate, supply, hold, import and export cannabis.

This made PDC based in Maseru the first company in the country and the entire African continent to be permitted to legally produce the drug.