Cannabis, a subsistence for poor african farmers

PIGG’S PEAK, SWAZILAND - After hours of scrambling over rugged mountain terrain, Swaziland’s anti-drug squad finds a secret field packed with some of the world’s most potent cannabis.

“Swazi Gold" is grown in the remote northern mountains of this tiny African kingdom, then smuggled into neighboring South Africa and on to Europe and North America.

Police in impoverished Swaziland say despite dousing acres of plants with chemicals, they are losing the war on cannabis to dirt-poor peasants.

"We can’t win this war," said Ngwane Dlamini, head of criminal investigation in the northern region of Hhohho. A handful of drug lords buy and sell the cannabis - the world’s most popular illegal drug - but most of the growing is done by subsistence farmers desperate after four years of drought and hefty job cuts.

According to Swaziland’s Council Against Drug and Alcohol Abuse, about 70 percent of small farmers turn to cannabis. Interpol says southern Africa, including Swaziland, has the potential to overtake key pot producers such as Morocco.

Source: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistor...(from Reuters News Service)