SA must move now to take part in dagga boom

“There is a global shift towards cannabis legalisation. South Africa is getting on board, Zimbabwe is getting on board. But if Africa wants to be first in taking advantage, we have to move now. It’s up to the government to change legislation promptly and give people in the industry a chance to develop (through) tax breaks, subsidies and things like that.”

The four-day trade and consumer exhibition dedicated to the cannabis industry took place for the first time in South Africa, at The Time Square Casino in Tshwane in the same year the Constitutional Court ruled that the personal possession and use of dagga was no longer illegal.

A number of industry participants – from growers to processors, users and legal practitioners – gathered to salivate and pontificate over the future of the plant in the country and the world.

Standwa Nongauza is a representative of Easy Equities, a stockbroking firm that has seen the potentially lucrative opportunities in green fields of dagga and is trying to get an early lead in the industry. “We’re the little legs that run between buyers and sellers (of stocks in companies that trade in cannabis products).”

Not to be left behind in anticipating future uses for the dagga plant in the country were some in the medical profession. “In the early 1930s, it was available in pharmacies. It formed part of different medications and it was approved by the American Medical Association,” said Dr Shiksha Gallow from Cannabis Oil Research, which has a website that provides information to the industry.

She described herself as a medical scientist in clinical pathology. Gallow’s was not a presentation about vague alternative medicine but one based on science. She cited an example of how effective cannabis was in treating the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

But with various participants bursting with optimism about the future of the industry, it was left to Kyle Telfer to pop the bubble.

“There exists no legal industry in cannabis. The exchange of cannabis for money is not allowed,” said the lawyer from the Dagga Couple, a pro-cannabis lobby founded by Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke after they were arrested for possession and dealing. It was through their efforts the legal status of dagga changed.

Telfer said instead of allowing the exchange of cannabis for money, “the judgment allows for the growing, use and possession of cannabis by an adult in private, around other consenting adults”.

The Concourt has directed Parliament to enact the necessary laws to give effect to the 2018 judgment. This article first appeared on New Frame.