In this 2 part video report for Vice.com, Hamilton Morris travels to the tiny landlocked African country – Swaziland to find what cannabinoids are in the local strains. One strain in particular is focused on called Swaziland Gold which is a highly sought-after sativa strain.
Hamilton meets a local Rastafarian who guides him on some of his travels through-out the beautiful country. What he uncovers is a country rife with political corruption and injustice, along the way he encounters many dedicated cannabis farmers. Even though Swaziland is relatively small country located between South Africa and Mozambique it has more measured land with cannabis growing than the entirety of India.
The majority of the cannabis farmers in Swaziland are simply poor families using the cannabis trade to survive. Some farmers who choose to smuggle their crops live very different lives to the basic cannabis farmers as the profit margins are higher for those risking their freedom to transport Swazi Gold over borders which is mainly into South Africa.
Hamilton can see Swaziland being ‘the Amsterdam of South Africa’ in the future and considers the country’s cannabis as one of it’s most prized assets. The trade of Swaziland cannabis could prove to be the ‘antidote’ to the tiny nation’s instability.
Hamilton Morris hosts a series called – Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia: A Curated Tour Through the World of Drugs