Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister: Cannabis Is Not Medicine

The cannabis plant is medicine. That is a fact that is often refuted by cannabis opponents despite the overwhelming evidence in support of the claim.

Cannabis has been used for medical purposes for centuries all over the world. Countless suffering patients all over the globe have used cannabis to successfully treat their conditions.

It is always worth noting that cannabis is a safer form of medicine compared to virtually all pharmaceutical drugs, and unlike those drugs, cannabis can be somewhat easily cultivated by the patients themselves.

Unfortunately, Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister feels that cannabis is not medicine, and is revoking a previous declaration that cannabis is a medicinal plant. Per The Jakarta Post:

The Agriculture Ministry will revise a 2020 ministerial decree that lists marijuana as a “medicinal plant” under the ministry’s supervision.

Signed on Feb. 3, the decree includes marijuana (Cannabis sativa) as one of 66 medicinal plants whose production is under the supervision of the ministry’s horticulture directorate general.

The decree went viral on Friday after the Nusantara Marijuana Network (LGN) posted a photo of the document on its Instagram account, @lgn_id.

This is an unfortunate and unfounded move by Indonesia’s Agriculture Minister. Cannabis is absolutely medicine, and the revoking of the previous decree is obviously motivated by political opinions and not by science and compassion.

Indonesia has historically been one of the harshest countries when it comes to cannabis policy so this move is not entirely unexpected, although it is still very disappointing to see.