Dagga and the law

In March 2017, the Western Cape High Court ruled that it’s an infringement to ban the cultivation, possession and use of dagga by adults in private homes. As a result, the ruling declared sections of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act and of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act unconstitutional and invalid, but suspended this invalidity for two years to give MPs time to fix the problem. This effectively means that the old laws still apply until the two-year period is up. The State has appealed the Cape Town High Court ruling, saying that it doesn’t want any of the current legislation around the use of dagga to be changed or amended.