Closer look at dagga ruling
ONCE Parliament has closely scrutinised a Western Cape High Court ruling that dagga may be grown and smoked in the privacy of homes, it may consider appealing the judgment. Parliament spokesperson Moloto Mothapo said they had been informed of the high court ruling which provides the national legislature with two years within which to change sections of the Drug Trafficking Act and the Medicines Control Act.
“Parliament is in the process of obtaining the judgment to study exactly what it says. If the two laws mentioned have been found to be unconstitutional, then the Constitutional Court would have to confirm the judgment before Parliament can act. The state could also appeal the judgment,” said Mothapo.
Taking into account that dagga “alters people’s perceptions and actions”, SA Mobile Drug Testing chief executive Eugene du Plessis said people in high-risk professions in the marine, airline and transport industries “cannot spend the whole weekend smoking and then fly or drive passengers or take to the seas on Monday”.
Daphne Bradbury, an independent consultant and former chief executive of the SA Institute for Drug Free Sport, said dagga would always be a banned substance in all sports because it enhanced performance by decreasing anxiety and fear, and was a potential health risk as it decreased cognition. Also, drug usage was neither clean nor ethical, and acted against the “spirit of sport”.
“A positive test result for cannabis ‘out of competition’ would not be against the rules. However, the problem is that cannabis can remain stored in the body for up to three weeks – up to a couple of months with heavy usage – and therefore athletes who feel they can now use it with impunity for recreational purposes should be extremely careful as they could still test positive at an event days or even weeks later,” said Bradbury.
In Pretoria, Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs cautioned that it would take time before the laws changed and smoking dagga at home would still remain illegal, with users liable to face arrest. Clarke and Stobbs are set to continue to fight for the legalisation of dagga at the high court in Pretoria.
African Christian Democratic Party national chairperson Jo-Ann Downs called on the minister of health to oppose the ruling in the Constitutional Court.