A German investor plans to produce medical cannabis in Afghanistan
CPharm International (ECI), a German research and development firm, has said it is planning a multi-million-dollar investment in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, with the aim of producing weed for medical purposes.
Following an unfortunate case of mistaken identity in late 2021, Vice media agency tracked down a German company, CPharm International (ECI), which has struck a deal with the Taliban.
Last year, a tweet from the Afghan Ministry of the Interior claimed that a firm called “Cpharm” had met with Taliban officials and would invest $450 million in Afghanistan to set up a “hashish-processing” operation. The media wrongly identified a small Australian medical consulting firm of the same name; they vehemently denied the link with the Taliban.
READ MORE: Fake news over Aussie-Taliban cannabis deal sweeps global headlines
Werner Zimmermann, 56, ECI’s owner and managing director, told Vice on Friday he was not happy that news of the deal had gone public, and claimed the scale of the agreement had been misconstrued.
His company operates in Lesotho, Morocco, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, and Cyprus, with Kazakhstan and Afghanistan soon to be added to the list.
Zimmermann’s firm builds cannabis-processing plants and consults on legal issues, such as the feasibility of exporting medical weed to other countries. The Afghan project is due to follow the building of a €500,000 ($565,818) plant in Kazakhstan.