Shock, relief over historic dagga court ruling

POLICE no longer have the right to arrest adults found in possession of cannabis (dagga) in their private homes after the Constitutional Court ruled yesterday that legislation banning its use and cultivation in private homes violated privacy.

Concern is, however, mounting that the ruling’s impact could lead to cannabis becoming too easily accessible to children, leading to a range of social problems.

Sam Pillay, the director of the Anti-Drug Forum, said this was the most “disturbing ruling I have every heard”.

“I am very disappointed. I cannot express how disappointed. It is evident that people don’t understand the negative impact of drugs. We know the impact because we are dealing with it every day. From smoking cannabis, one can move onto other stuff,” warned Pillay.

He added that he feared that even if adults grew cannabis in their yards for their personal use, there was nothing stopping children getting access to it.

“We have about 20 children, as young as 10, who are suspected to be taking cannabis attending our six-week programme every week… now it’s going to be available all over the place.

“Children will no longer be ducking (out) at school but will be walking around freely because usage is going to go beyond just someone’s home.”

Roy Sukdhev, the founder of the Phoenix North Coast Cancer Support Group, said they were partly elated with the ruling.

He said while medical cannabis had a therapeutic and healing effect, it was, however, “reckless” to give a carte blanche ruling as cannabis was open to abuse by the youth.

“Cannabis is so easily growable that anyone can cultivate it in their yard, so how will it be controlled if it will be for recreational use?”

The ChristianView Network released a statement condemning the unanimous court decision, calling it “reckless and foolish”.

“(T)he judgment created a precedent that had implications not only for dagga, but now left almost any law open to being overturned on grounds of a stretched interpretation of the right to ‘privacy’ or other similar concepts, not the intended meaning of the Constitutional Assembly.”

It added that the court had drastically over-reached its powers, creating a constitutional crisis that had undermined and threatened the country’s democracy.

The statement read that the judgment did not decriminalise possession of dagga by a child, but made it near impossible to enforce this.

IFP MP Narend Singh called on South Africans to “act responsibly in terms of their private cannabis use” adding that he hoped the ruling would also see the fast-tracking of legislation for the commercialisation of hemp in South Africa,