It all began with a Nov. 24 tweet (in English) from the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Taliban’s “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” declared after the militant group seized control of the country in August. It stated that the deputy minister for counter-narcotics “met with a representative” of a corporation called Cpharm, which is to “invest $450 million in setting up a hashish-processing company in Afghanistan.” The tweet stated that “medicines and creams” are to be manufactured at the facility (indicating that the word “hashish” was being used as an imprecise stand-in for cannabis). It added: “The project will be officially launched soon and hundreds of people will get job opportunities on the project.” That same day, a report by Kabul-based Pajhwok Afghan News quoted an Interior Ministry representative, Qari Saeed Khosti, making the same announcement. Regarding the outlawed status of cannabis in the country, Khosti said: “It is grown nationwide and we want to set a legal framework for sowing this illicit crop.” This report initially identified Cpharm as an Australian firm. This was later corrected, and it was changed to German. Khosti made the correction on Twitter, saying “Our talks were not with…an Australian company, but a German company.” The confusion seems to be due to the fact that the Australian Cpharm is the first to readily pop up on Google. But Khosti’s tweeted correction only went out in Pashto—not in English.
Cannabis Now, Cannabis Now, 12/17/2021 01:23:00