Mali authorises a company's hemp-growing project for medical exports

Mali authorised African Seeds to grow industrial hemp on 28 February 2017 for seed exports intended for medical use. The project was subject to government supervision and reported licence conditions limiting the crop to varieties with no more than 0.2% THC.

A company received a limited permission

The authorisation sat alongside the 2001 drug law, which prohibited ordinary cannabis cultivation and regulated authorised handling of controlled drugs. The project involved a company operating under agreed conditions rather than an open farming market.

For the controlled activities it allowed, the law required a pharmacist or a company with a pharmacist participating in management. Ministerial permission was limited to medical purposes. This placed supervision of legitimate drug handling alongside the prohibition on ordinary cannabis growing.

Reporting in 2019 described permission for seeds intended entirely for export for medical purposes. A March 2018 amendment added oil extracted from the plant to the authorised exports.

Those terms made the destination and purpose of production central to the project. They tied the permission to supervised industrial-hemp cultivation and specified products for an external market.

Seed and harvest controls were detailed

The reported conditions required the company to obtain seed from an approved supplier and prevented it from resowing its own seed. It had to identify the proposed site and growing area and provide an analysis of the variety, including its THC content.

The reported conditions also provided for inspections and official supervision of harvests. The authorities were to follow the project from its planting material through production and collection.

Public controversy followed the permission

By 2019, press coverage described criticism on social media of security minister Salif Traoré for granting the company permission. The official explanation emphasised the distinction between industrial hemp and cannabis cultivated for intoxication.

In May 2020, central drug office director Adama Tounkara addressed the issue at a press conference. He confirmed that the security minister had authorised the project in 2017 and that it was supposed to operate under technical supervision, including checks involving national health and seed laboratories.

The authorisation was withdrawn

Tounkara also confirmed that permission had been cancelled on 25 February 2020. He said the producers had sought changes to the agreed conditions, prompting the withdrawal.

His statement responded to claims still circulating that the project was continuing. The episode left Mali with a record of a limited export-oriented authorisation followed by its cancellation, while ordinary cannabis cultivation remained prohibited under the drug law.^[1][2][3]