Cannabis smokers say police have

The decriminalisation of adult use in private was a relief to users who allege arrests are low-hanging fruit for police

‘It feels good to smoke in the comfort of my home — without the worry of the police harassing me,” said Tebogo Seele, puffing a thick and pungent cloud into the air. Seele, speaking from his home in the Gauteng township of Katlehong, was reacting to the National Council of Provinces passing the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill — also known as the dagga bill — in February. It has been sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign into law.

The informal trader said the bill would have the added advantage of expunging the criminal record of his cousin, who asked to be identified by his township nickname, Spanner, for possession of dagga.

But cultivating the product for financial gain, known as dealing, will still be illegal, when the law is passed.

The bill does not specify what quantity of cannabis in a person’s possession is deemed to be stock for selling, rather than for personal use.

The proposed legislation leaves it to police officers’ discretion to determine what amount of dagga constitutes intention to sell.

This week, Katlehong residents who spoke to the Mail & Guardian said law enforcement officers had “weaponised” the policing of daggause by adults in their private spaces, accusing them of harassing people in order to boost their arrest numbers as part of their key performance indicators.

The residents’ contention is supported by an August 2020 report by Fields of Green for All, an NGO, which was founded by the late Julian Stobbs and his partner Myrtle Clarke, known as “the Dagga Couple”.

In September 2018, the constitutional court ruled that sections of the Drugs Trafficking Act of 1992 were unconstitutional, after a legal challenge that involved Stobbs and Clarke. The sections included cannabis — or dagga — among prohibited drugs, making it a criminal offence to be found in possession of the product.

In his report for Fields of Green for All, Suresh Patel said arrests for dagga possession counted favourably towards police officers’ performance indicators and this had to be factored in when “understanding cannabis arrests in South Africa”.

“Arresting a cannabis user or grower is lowhanging fruit for South African police officers because they meet their targets without having to expose themselves in dangerous and stressful situations where violent crime is involved,” Patel said.

“South Africa is one of the most violent and socially unequal countries in the world, with organised crime and gang elements proliferating in high-density, low-income areas.”

Patel’s views are supported by crime statistics for the 2017-18 financial year, which showed that 65% of the 323 547 people who were arrested for drug-related crimes were on possession of dagga charges.

The statistics include Spanner’s payment of an admission of guilt fine in January 2018 at the Katlehong South police station, when police arrested him, he said, on false accusations of being a cannabis dealer.

A plastic bag containing the dried plant was found in his home, which he shares with his cousin, Seele. There, the two men grow and smoke what they refer to as their “feel-good medicine”.

Should Ramaphosa pass the dagga bill, the criminal records of people who signed an admission of guilt, or were convicted for the possession of cannabis, will fall away.

Spanner said he had been “tricked” by officers at the local police station into admitting his guilt, saying he had paid the R500 fine because