Page 121 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

Fields of Green for ALL • Collectively Reforming South African Cannabis Laws
5.3 Health Uses (Conventional Medicine Pillar)
This proposal does not outline any regulations for
medicinal use, because South Africa already has
bodies like SAHPRA who have shown appetite for
regulating and controlling the medicinal market
of this plant. All producers who choose to claim
that their product is for medical use should be
regulated through existing SAHPRA regulations.
However, this area should be carefully considered
in consultation with the existing non-regulated
producers of Cannabis medicine, as that is
where the local expertise lies. The traditional
medical uses, combined with standardisation
and research that supports the medicinal claims
of Cannabis products, are what sets this sector of
the Cannabis industry apart.
According to the 1992 Drugs Act, Cannabis was
a Schedule 7 drug but the South Africa Health
Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) decided
to drop the classification to Schedule 4 in 2017.
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Towards the end of May 2019, South African
Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA)
gazetted a regulatory notice titled “Exemption
Of Certain Cannabidiol Products From The
5.3.1 Registered Medicines
The Medicines and Related Substances Act
101 of 1965 speaks to the requirements of
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registering a substance as a recognised and
approved medicine. This act governs the
operations of bodies such as the South African
Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA)
and the Health Professional Council of South
Africa (HPCSA), addressing the process from
its formulation up to the patient receiving their
medicine. The UN Vote on 3 December 2020,
deleting Cannabis and Cannabis Resin from
Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on
Narcotic Drugs will enable countries to conduct
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CANNABIS IN SOUTH AFRICA • THE PEOPLE’S PLANT • A Full-Spectrum Manifesto For Policy Reform 77
Operation Of The Medicines Act”, followed by
an official press release on the 27th May 2019.
This was followed by a high court application
launched by the Traditional and Natural Healers
Association in December 2018 to review the 2017
scheduling of CBD as a Schedule 4 medicine,
and which threatened to eliminate all CBD and
CBD-containing products then sold on the
market. CBD can now be prescribed by a doctor,
and if the dose is less than a certain threshold, a
prescription is not needed. This resulted in the
explosion of CBD products currently seen on the
market.
Traditional producers/cultivators that provide
to traditional healers are not subject to these
medical industry regulations, but rather
regulations for Kasinomics cultivation (see
section 5.2.2.1), the mandatory certification via a
Hub and retail through a traditional healer (see
section 5.2.4.2) All citizens have the choice to
use a medically certified, “pharmaceutical-type”
product or to self medicate with a product from
other sources.
testing on Cannabis, in order to provide some
much-needed, updated research on the plant
and its properties. This research can address
the difficulties in linking certain elements
of the Cannabis plant (terpene profile; levels
of THC, CBD and other cannabinoids; strain;
cultivation method; etc.) to treat certain diseases
or ailments. This can in turn be absorbed into
the Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of
1965, to allow medical professionals to prescribe
effective Cannabis-based medicines to treat the
intended condition.