High time SA legalised dagga use
WHY haven’t we legalised cannabis yet South Africa?
Or, at the very least, gone the decriminalisation route as is now supported by South Africa’s preeminent drugs policy watchdog, the Central Drug Authority?
Seven years have passed since the founding of the Dagga Party of South Africa by Jeremy Acton.
The Dagga Couple’s Jules Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke were raided by the South African Police Service back in 2010.
As we continue to be on a path, seemingly towards nowhere, other African countries are increasingly making noises about softening their own laws in this regard.
Most recently, a member of the Swazi parliament, Hans Steffen, spoke out about the possibility of his country being able to pay a grant worth 2000 emalangeni – about R2 000 – to every elderly citizen, just by legalising the cultivation and sale of cannabis and the manufacture of cannabisbased products.
Steffen also asserted that America is not against the use of the cannabis plant, because of the amount of money such a legallyregulated industry can generate.
Malawi and Ghana are two more sub-Saharan African countries that have not only voiced their support for a change in attitude towards cannabis, but are actually busy taking solid steps to implement alternative policies.
In the case of the former, a new hemp industry has been given government approval and backing. This new hemp industry is being touted as a means to help alleviate poverty through reinvigorating both the agricultural and manufacturing sectors in the country’s economy.
In Ghana, the government has become increasingly worried about the “abuse of cannabis”, which has become commonplace due to a laissez-faire attitude to cannabis by the general public.
Cannabis use is in fact so normalised and widespread in Africa’s top consumer nation, that the Executive Secretary of the country’s Narcotics Control Board, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, has stated that cannabis is already “virtually legalised”.
A sign of this, is that cannabis can be found in cosmetics and hair products used by women in the country and that it is smoked by Ghanaians of all social classes, including respected professionals.
Ghanaian police have publicly agreed with this position and called for decriminalisation in order to help combat the abuse of the substance.
According to a video on CCTV recently, Ghana’s Deputy Minister of the Interior, James Agalga, said under a proposed new bill tabled before parliament, cannabis-users will be given medical care and rehabilitation, rather than prosecution and incarceration.
Back here at home in South Africa, it is alarming how frequent cannabis busts are carried out around the country.
Not a day goes by without at least two or three cannabis busts by SAPS members. Is this really an appropriate way to spend valuable and limited crime-fighting resources, given that the more time is spent on trying to stop people from growing, possessing, selling and using cannabis, the less time the SAPS can spend going after violent criminals like rapists, armed robbers and murderers?
It does beg the important question as to why the authorities appear to see cannabis as a bigger threat and priority for law enforcement, than the epidemic of serious crime afflicting communities over the length and breadth of South Africa.
In light of a fairly recent ruling by the Constitutional Court, that declared certain sections of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act unconstitutional and invalid, a story written by reporter Yazeed Kamaldien titled: ‘Blow for drugb was published on the IOL website on November 5.
The opening claim reads: “It is now illegal for police officers to randomly stop and search people or enter any premises looking for drugs, unless they have a search warrant”.
I sought to clarify the matter of searches without warrants by the SAPS, as this news could doubtless lead to many South Africans jumping for joy that the anonymity and safety of their homegrown cannabis gardens would stand to benefit.
I asked senior researcher at the Centre of Criminology in the Faculty of Law at University of Cape Town, Dr Simon Howell, whether provisions in the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) still allowed the SAPS to conduct searches without warrants.
His response was: “Indeed” – related provision is also made in the Policing Act. The reporter and I discussed this fairly extensively, however, what ultimately ends up in print – and where emphasis is placed – is not at my discretion.
So, it unfortunately appears that celebrations by the dagga-growing fraternity are probably premature. Let us briefly turn our focus to the US presidential elections, which last Tuesday provided some interesting developments, besides Donald Trump becoming the new president-elect.
News spread like wildfire on social media and the broader internet that four more states – California, Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts had all voted to support the legal use and sale of recreational cannabis. Three other states – Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota also made it legal for doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to their patients.
Smoking dagga is now legal, in some form or another, in 29 American states. What this latest round of ballot initiatives basically translates to, is that one in every five Americans can now get legally high. The latest projections by business analysts predict that legal marijuana could grow to become a $22-billion (R314-billion) industry in the United States by 2020, up from $7-billion (R99-billion) this year. I would like to see South African legislators taking more of a leading role in engaging on the topic of dagga legalisation.
For the most part, their voices have been largely absent from the public discourse.
Cannabis legalisation has moved from being a fringe issue to one of the mainstream and is growing in popularity here at home, as polls consistently show a majority in favour of some kind of law reforms.
In closing, I would like to inform all South Africans that the third round of constitutional dagga hearings is taking place in the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town on December 13.
Whether you are a user of the cannabis plant or not, for, or against our dagga laws being reformed, you are all heartily encouraged to come spend the morning with us discussing the pros and cons of this controversial topic on the steps of the high court as we nervously anticipate and await the ruling of the full panel of judges inside.
Alexander Dowding is the cofounder of the Dagga Union of South Africa (Dusa)