Dagga: know the facts
WHILE returning books at our local library during the July holidays, I was invited by the library manageress to participate in a well-intentioned anti-drugs programme presented by members of the local anti-drug task force.
The presenter encouraged questions while showing exhibits of cocaine, Mandrax and ecstasy tablets.
When the presenter displayed cannabis (dagga), an eager 10-year-old asked if it was true that cannabis cured cancer.
The presenter responded that cannabis was good for medical purposes, but added that a child had died of an overdose on Valentine’s Day this year.
This misinformation (although well- intentioned) causes more harm than good, and a better approach is to explain the harms inherent in smoking cannabis (for youth), as opposed to consuming it as a beverage (juice/tea) or food, where research shows no evidence of impaired cognitive function in young adults. Mis- informing the youth creates distrust, and some may experiment to determine the truth for themselves.
More than two decades ago, US Drug Enforcement Agency judge Francis L Young ruled that cannabis in its natural form was one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to humankind.
He condemned its prohibition as “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious”, and ordered the DEA to re-categorise cannabis so it could be available on prescription.
With this judgment, Judge Young opened one of the most bizarre and indefensible chapters in the war on drugs, and one that demonstrates that those opposed to cannabis are determined that the herb remain illegal, no matter how absurd their case becomes.
So entrenched is the drug-prohibition regime that drug arrests and convictions are linked to police officers’ and prosecutors’ annual performance increases. Sadly, it is these very policies that lead to violent crime and wasted resources, as KZN violence monitor Mary de Haas and the Free Market Foundation attest to.
Sex work and cannabis policy reforms place no extra fiscal burden on state coffers and have been successful in reducing violent crime in many progressive democracies and more than half the states in the US. Policy reforms against victimless criminals will help shift South Africa from a thirdto a first-world economy and bridge the divide between rich and poor.
Perhaps our current policies are part of the reason students protest about a colonised education curriculum, which churns out students for a labour-based economy.
No more misinformation please, or else our next generation of students will continually protest. K GOVENDER Chair – Springhaven Seed Bank, Harm Reduction and Renewable Energy Centre Pietermaritzburg WELCOME to the fight Cyril, but where have you been?
It appears that Cyril Ramaphosa has found his voice. Speaking at the SACP conference he stated he will “not remain silent” and “cannot turn a blind eye or keep quiet”.
This makes a a remarkable about-turn from the myopia and muteness of his last three years as deputy president and leader of government business in Parliament.
During the Nkandla debacle, Nenegate, Waterkloof landing scandal, and as our state-owned entities collapsed under the weight of “Guptarisation”, and the economy tanked, Ramaphosa watched and remained silent. He bottled every opportunity to stand up to state capture and actually do something decisive.
Never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity, he voted slavishly every time to keep Jacob Zuma, despite the brutal judgments of the Constitutional Court.
He watched cabinet colleagues like Nhlanhla Nene, Pravin Gordhan and Mcebisi Jonas being picked off one by one, yet did nothing.
Now, with a vaulting ambition to be president, Ramaphosa wants to hoodwink South Africans into believing that he is suddenly the guardian of good and will miraculously fix the rotten ANC.
South Africa needs strong, decisive and principled leadership. The last thing it needs is more weak and vacillating leadership and fair-weather principles that have become the hallmarks of the Ramaphosa brand. JOHN STEENHUISEN,
MP Chief Whip of the Official Opposition Parliament of RSA