Africa-Press – Botswana. Parliament has passed the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2025 (Bill No. 26 of 2025), which sought to amend the existing Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, passed by the National Assembly in June 2018.
The Assistant Minister for State President, Ms Maipelo Mophuting on Thursday, presented the 13 Clauses Bill, passed with amendments after a majority vote of 32 out of 35 votes.
One MP did not vote and two abstained.
Motivating the urgency of the Bill, prior to being passed, Ms Mophuting said following Parliament’s passing of the Cannabis Bill, 2025 (Bill No. 25 of 2025), it was important that the existing legislations were also harmonised towards enabling the implementation of the Cannabis Act.
“It is requested that the Bill be presented under a certificate of urgency as a means of helping to support government’s priority of diversifying the economy through revenue streams,” she said.
Currently, the assistant minister said the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act prohibited dealing in any illicit substance or any plant from which any illicit substance could be manufactured and creates offense, thereto.
Furthermore, she said the Act also prohibited the cultivation, manufacture, import, export, possession, distribution or sale of a prohibited substance.
“The amendment of the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 2018 as a consequence of the enactment of and for consistency with the Cannabis Act, will now allow cultivation, production, storage, manufacture, import, export, transportation, distribution and sale of medicinal cannabis and industrial hemp products,” she added.
The Bill, the assistant minister said, would mature beyond the current sitting of Parliament and deferring it until November Parliament session would delay immediate preparations and activities for the hemp industry to take off.
She said the country was a signatory to the various conventions and protocols that fundamentally shaped the country’s international commitments and obligations.
In particular, she said the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961 established the legal framework for international drug control and outlined conditions for cannabis cultivation and control.
“This rigorous legal framework requires that we must align our existing laws to achieve compliance under the convention,” she said.
For that reason, Ms Mophuting stressed that it was critical that all pieces of legislation were consolidated, as part of the preparations to start cannabis cultivation for the industrial hemp industry uptake.
Source: dailynews
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