Nairobi — Government is looking into reexamining the classification of Miraa (Khat) as a harmful substance to facilitate its exclusion from adverse classification by anti-drug abuse agency, NACADA.
Speaking Friday in Tigania Constituency on Friday, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said reclassification of Miraa is part of government’s commitment to scale the crop’s profitability.
He guaranteed the Miraa farmers that the government will work tirelessly to help them enhance their incomes.
“We will appoint a few farmers from Meru to go abroad and look for more markets of the crop,” he said.
“Those who are talking about Miraa [should] leave Miraa alone; it is a cash crop,” Gachagua asserted.
The DP restated President William Ruto’s commitment to reforms in the agriculture sector to turn around fortunes of farmers, especially smallholder producers.
He added that the government will support initiatives to find new high-value markets for Miraa and other crops.
The National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA) has classified Miraa as a harmful substance based on the two substances found in Khat.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act of 1994 classifies Cathine and Cathinone as harmful substances.
Gachagua’s reassurances followed concerns of an ongoing crackdown against illicit drugs having vowed numerously to have national administration officials who fail to rein in on the drug abuse menace dismissed.
Speaking in Chuka, Tharaka Nithi, on June 12 the DP urged security leaders in the upper eastern region and chiefs to ensure illicit brews are wiped out in their regions within ten days.
“A chief and alcohol cannot exist together. And because the drugs don’t have brains you know who will leave.”