(Bloomberg) -- Malawian legislators legalized the cultivation of a highly potent local variety of cannabis for industrial and medicinal use. 

The government will give people licenses to grow and transport the variety known as chamba or ganja, but smoking remains illegal, House Leader Richard Chimwendo Banda told reporters Thursday in Lilongwe, the capital, after the bill had been passed. 

“Nowhere in the bill is it written that people will be allowed to use this chamba for recreational purposes, for smoking,” he said.

Some members of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party walked out of the chamber in protest to the passing of the bill, saying they needed to be given enough time to scrutinize the legislation.

Peter Dimba, a member of parliament from the ruling Malawi Congress Party who moved the motion to legalize the plant, said that it’s highly sought after in the global market. 

“In 2018 we allowed the cultivation of industrial hemp but somehow, we discriminated against our own variety and that was a classic example of self-hatred,” he said, adding that the law will bring economic benefits to the country.

 

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