ABSTRACT
It was policies devised for very different purposes that served to stimulate the global trade in cannabis products. The first section of this chapter deals with the creation of new markets for cannabis across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. The key mechanism for understanding this process is the indentured labour system devised for the employment of Indian workers throughout the British Empire. The second section looks at the effect of a cannabis-prohibition policy in Egypt under the British administration there. This shows how such a policy in fact stimulated an existing market to turn to new supply networks, hence creating smuggling trails that spread across the Mediterranean, Africa and Asia.
