Publication

There is probably no illicit market that benefits Southern Africa’s poor more than the thriving market for cannabis (Cannabis sativa, commonly known as marijuana, or dagga in South Africa). The peasant producers in Tanzania, Swaziland, South Africa, or Lesotho only get a minute slice of what is earned by the sophisticated criminal groups who export the processed crop to Europe and elsewhere. However, for the thousands of primary producers who sell cannabis to middlemen, the modest returns enable them to eke out a living at a time when it is becoming more difficult to do so from conventional cash crops.