Tanzania stops the sale of seed that contains bhang

Government Notice 31 of 1976 puts bhang seed on the list of weed seeds that a crop-seed sample is not allowed to contain. Two or more of those seeds in a kilogram take the lot off sale until it is cleaned and tested again.^[1]

A standard for seed, not a new drug penalty

The notice is the Weed Seeds Order, made under the Seeds (Regulation of Standards) Act. It prescribes the seeds in its schedule as weed seeds for the grade standards under that Act. The copy read is the text as consolidated to 31 July 2002. No amendment mark is printed against the hemp lines, and the commencement line is blank, so the notice is dated to 1976 without a gazette day.^[1]

Growing, holding and using cannabis were already offences. This order is about seed offered for sowing.

What counts as a prohibited weed seed

Class 1 is the prohibited noxious weed seeds, and it applies to every table of grade standards in the Seeds Regulations, 1976. A sample may not contain any of them. The tolerance is one seed in a kilogram. Finding one is treated as within a tolerance of none. Finding two or more in a kilogram places the seed under a stop-sale until it has been recleaned and retested.^[1]

The schedule prints two hemp rows. Item 4 is hemp, with the common name marijuana. Item 5 is Cannabis sativa, known as true hemp and in Swahili as bhang or bangi. The coca plant is the next row. Restricted weeds, in a separate class, include thorn apple and Mexican poppy, and those may number up to four seeds in a kilogram if the label states them. Bhang is not in that milder class.^[1]

What a seller had to do

Weed seed, for the order, means the seeds of the plants it specifies, or seeds recognised as weed seeds by general usage. The Class 1 rule is a cleanliness rule for seed that is being graded. A lot that fails it is held for recleaning rather than given a prison term in this notice. The notice does not set a fine of its own.^[1]

The drug law that followed

The 1995 drug law, in force from 1 January 1996, prohibited unauthorised cannabis growing, possession, supply and use, and it replaced the colonial noxious-plants and dangerous-drugs ordinances. The seed-grade rule sits beside that later statute. The present account is on the country profile.