The Minister for the Interior, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has disclosed that eight companies have applied to cultivate industrial cannabis in Ghana.

Appearing before Parliament's Assurances Committee, the Minister clarified that under the country's legal framework, only cannabis with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of 0.3 per cent or less may be cultivated, strictly for industrial and medicinal purposes. Recreational use remains prohibited, he stated.

He stressed that legalisation did not permit indiscriminate cultivation of the plant.

The Minister explained that the Ministry, working with the Narcotics Control Commission, carried out 2,170 sensitisation activities and radio programmes in 2025, reaching an estimated 500,000 people nationwide to educate communities on the guidelines and dangers of narcotic drug cultivation.

The awareness campaign also included the establishment of students' drug clubs in schools to strengthen education on narcotics.

Alhaji Muntaka further disclosed that the government plans to recruit narcotics intelligence experts across all 261 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies. Currently, Narcotics Control Commission offices operate in 66 MMDAs, with expansion planned nationwide within the next five to seven years.

Ghana's cannabis policy is guided by the Narcotics Control Commission (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1100) and the Narcotics Control Commission Regulations, 2023 (L.I. 2475), which permit controlled cultivation of cannabis with THC ≤ 0.3% for industrial and medicinal purposes, subject to licensing by the Commission.