Dagga ruling just the start — activists
DAGGA activists have high hopes for the legalisation of marijuana after a court judgment on Friday decriminalised private cultivation and use.
Julian Stobbs, half of the so-called “dagga couple” who will go to court in Pretoria in July to fight for legalisation in “the trial of the plant”, said it was a “very good day for South African cannabis”.
Judge Dennis Davis ruled in the High Court in Cape Town that adults may possess, cultivate and use dagga in the privacy of their homes.
He gave parliament 24 months to change laws on dagga that were “inconsistent” with the constitutional right to privacy, and therefore invalid.
In the meantime, he said, his 66page judgment could be used as a defence if a person was charged for possession or use of dagga in their home.
“If you think about it and you read between the lines, if that is the case for weed it is the case for everything. This opens the door to the complete and utter repeal of prohibition in its entirety,” said Stobbs.
The activist, who campaigns with partner Myrtle Clarke through the organisation Fields of Green For All, said the judgment aided their case. “The ruling is a step in the right direction,” he said, adding that he thought an appeal by the state was unlikely.
“It still has to go to the Constitutional Court, though, which we expect it to do,” he said.
Department of Justice spokesman Mthunzi Mhaga said the department “would reflect on the judgment” before deciding on its next step.
Anti-Drug Alliance coastal director Andrew Stoller said Davis’s ruling was also a win for individuals suffering from addictions such as alcoholism, because dagga could now be used as an “exit drug”.
“It has far less adverse effects than alcohol. In some cases [using dagga] has helped alcoholics [because they use] it as a substitute,” he said.
“It has far-reaching implications for substances like nyaope, which is wreaking havoc in the northern provinces. It can be used as an exit drug to help people come off the heroin substance which is the basis of nyaope.”
Substances such as naltrexone and methadone, heroin substitutes commonly used in rehabilitation, were expensive, and Friday’s judgment would allow people to grow their own “medicine” relatively cheaply.
“It means a reduction in the huge number of people being charged with possession. It means that people who are getting arrested on possession of marijuana charges will not be prosecuted, and it means that a whole lot of people who have a petty charge will not lose their job because of it,” said Stoller.
Stobbs added: “The way we read it, it is now permissible to grow and use the plant in the privacy of your own home. The cops cannot enter. However, my money is on the cops still entering.”
The judgment would send the police into “a berserk hornets’ nest”, he said.
“The cops are after the weed and it won’t stand up to scrutiny in a court of law, but by that time you’ve lost your weed anyway,” he said. “It does open doors for us, it does relax a lot of things, and with a bit of luck it will change the psyche at the SAPS.”
This opens the door to the complete and utter repeal of prohibition