Is medical cannabis really capable of making a difference for poor countries in terms of growth and job creation? That was the main question motivating the research whose findings are presented in this book. However, at the time the project was launched in January 2020 no one could have foreseen that the entire globe would soon be in thrall to a severe pandemic. Broadening the scope of the research to cover the entire pharmaceutical industry therefore seemed appropriate.

This book seeks to determine whether medical cannabis can indeed create jobs and wealth, notably in comparison with tobacco, for which the medicinal plant is deemed to be a viable substitute crop. It also explores the extent to which medical cannabis production and foreign investment in this area can benefit domestic pharmaceutical industries. Moreover, it considers the labour and environmental standards applied in the pharmaceutical sector, measuring the performance of multinational companies or foreign-owned enterprises against those standards, especially in the medical cannabis industry. The interviews and surveys conducted for the underlying research project yielded data that allow one to assess decent work deficits in the pharmaceutical sector of Lesotho and Zimbabwe, albeit with certain caveats because of the rather small sample sizes. Although these data need to be interpreted with caution, it is hoped that they will help to shed some light on a scarcely investigated field of research.