Legal sale of key compound
NPO hails Health Department move
Another incremental step to normalising the plant in SA society Julian Stobbs Fields of Green for All director
THE Fields of Green for All non-profit company (NPO) has welcomed in part the announcement by the Department of Health that Cannabidiol (CBD) has been removed from South Africa’s list of highly-controlled drugs and can now be sold legally.
Fields of Green for All director of Social Activism Julian Stobbs said: “We see it as another incremental step to normalising the plant in South African society. But the schedule change does nothing to stop the sweeping powers the police now have since the Concourt ‘privacy’ judgment. And the fact that there are still cannabis users being harassed, arrested, detained, extorted and treated like animals in cages means we still have a lot of work to do at Fields of Green for All.”
The Department of Health said as from next year, low-dose CBD products would be classified entirely outside drug regulations. This means, according to the department, that any “preparations” containing CBD would be excluded from highly-controlled drugs, and may be legally sold by anyone with a prescription.
“The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) capitulated and the Health Department gazetted a rescheduling of all CBD products. CBD is still in schedule 4 of the Medicines and Related Substances Act. It has, however, been removed from schedule 7, but is now to be considered a no claims health supplement. Really confusing, but it seems like a huge win for the Traditional and Natural Health Alliance and CBD, and may well usher in a more rational approach to the classification of dagga in general,” Stobbs said.
The department said the new exemption was a significant change to the original restrictions of daggaderived medicine in South Africa, which only allowed a select number of registered people or companies legal access to sell and make such products.
The exemption was gazetted by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi last week.