Daggapreneur draws ire for herbalist claim
‘Instant inyanga’ ploy behind weed shops
● Before he found himself in handcuffs, Russel de Beer’s storeroom in Brits was packed to the rafters with bales of dagga. With no space on the shelves, buckets of the heady cannabis flower found a place on the floor.
But his brazen plan to franchise the distribution of cannabis — by becoming a traditional healer to, as he claimed, circumvent the law banning the sale of weed — came crashing down, leaving a trail of angry investors.
De Beer, the man behind 61 Canapax cannabis dispensary stores across the country, was arrested two weeks ago.
Hawks spokesperson Capt Tlangelani Rikhotso said De Beer “allegedly sells franchises for cannabis dispensaries and is a major supplier of cannabis and related products”.
“The investigation aims to clamp down on the unlawful mushrooming of cannabis dispensaries around the country,” she said.
The Sunday Times has seen a Canapax magazine that lists 61 outlets, from Hermanus to Kyalami. Investors claim to have paid R25,000 to use the Canapax brand in an agreement to operate as a franchise.
With the investment came a crash course in herbal medicine from De Beer, after which investors were pronounced legitimate traditional healers.
Owners also signed a distribution contract with De Beer for the supply of weed.
Jurie Small, who opened a Canapax in Germiston and another in Brakpan, said De Beer had “sold him a fairy tale”.
“He said he would train me as a traditional healer. After three hours of training, according to him, I was a traditional healer,” Small said.
“When shops got raided, he would just tell the owners to show [the police] their paperwork, but he hung them [the investors] all out to dry,” Small said. “When the letter arrived from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority [Sahpra] saying what I was doing was illegal and had no basis in law, I closed both my shops.”
Small said opening a case against De Beer was not worth the time and effort. “I have other businesses so I didn’t feel the loss as bad as others,” he said.
A week before De Beer’s arrest, police and
Sahpra issued a “stern warning” that the establishment of unregistered dispensaries selling cannabis and cannabis-related products to the public remained illegal.
“The Traditional Health Practitioners Act does not create a mechanism to sell cannabis and cannabis-related products that are not exempted in terms of the Medicines Act,” they said.
Cheriece van Wyngaard, who operated a
Canapax in Roodepoort, said she paid De Beer R25,000 to purchase the outlet.
“He told us everything was legal because traditional healers can dispense cannabis for medicinal purposes. We opened up the store and business was booming, on a good month we would make R300,000,” she told the Sunday Times.
A central pillar of De Beer’s sales pitch, she said, was that traditional healers could prescribe cannabis for medicinal purposes.
“I spoke to a lawyer who told me nothing in the Traditional Health Practitioners Act allowed healers to legally sell dagga. I didn’t want to be arrested so I closed in October,” Van Wyngaard said.
“I asked him for my money back but now he’s been arrested so I doubt I will see anything.”
Van Wyngaard said she had consulted a lawyer and was considering whether to go ahead with a civil case.
De Beer’s lawyer, Moshibudi Makwela. did not respond to detailed questions.
Sahpra spokesperson Yuven Gounden said doctors who wish to prescribe cannabis can apply for an exemption. In the past year 45 applications have been received and 39 approved.
Willem Bronkhorst of the African National Healers Association said De Beer had been mistaken: “We told them that a traditional healer certificate would not allow them to trade in cannabis.”
Krithi Thaver, of the Cannabis Development Council, said it had called on police to investigate Canapax outlets, suspecting they had fallen foul of the law.