The senior leadership of Butabika Hospital has asked MPs on Parliament’s Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs not to legalize the use of khat (mairungi) and cannabis in Uganda.
The plea was yesterday made by the hospital executive director, Dr. Juliet Nakku while her team appeared before the committee that is currently processing the Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Bill 2023.
She warned that lawmakers should be very careful as they process the said provisions on khat and cannabis, saying these have a detrimental effect on the Ugandans, especially the youth that are likely to abuse them once legalized.
“The amounts required to reach euphoria tend to increase with repeated use hence people get into what we call tolerance, Tolerance is when you start to need a high amount of a particular substance to get the same effect that you got,” Nakku warned.
Dr. Nakku’s proposal comes after the Constitutional Court nullified the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Control Act early this year on grounds of quorum.
