Page 123 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

Fields of Green for ALL • Collectively Reforming South African Cannabis Laws

5.4 Industrial Uses (Hemp Pillar)

Hemp has been a historical agricultural crop 1. Products not made for human or animal
for thousands of years. Hemp oil and seeds are consumption (e.g.: clothes, concrete, batteries, plastic);
used for food and feed, while its fibre is used for 2. Products made for human or animal consumption,
clothing, cement, plastic, paper and more. It can but not for the purposes related to its psychoactive
be a locally used commodity to provide food, effects (e.g.: hemp seed oil, hemp protein and other
clothing and housing, among many other uses. 20 food stuff);

When revisiting its Cannabis policies, South 3. Products made for human or animal consumption
Africa must also consider the agro-economic and for its psychoactive effects (e.g.: adult-use
opportunities that hemp-type Cannabis cultivation Cannabis,, medical Cannabis, CBD products,
can provide. Globally, Industrial Cannabis is pharmaceutical products etc.).
cultivated in more than 30 countries and there While hemp has often been used to designate the first
are thousands of products that can be developed two purposes, there are also some who consider that
from hemp, encompassing business sectors the production of “CBD products” enters within the
like construction materials, food, paper, plastics, concept of “hemp”. To get on the tracks of evidence-
polymers, textiles, technical lubricants and even based policies, it is more reasonable to adopt the
bioenergy. The demand for industrial hemp “distinction by purpose” principle, enacted in the 1961
material means it could be farmed on a large, Single Convention. This approach is not based on the
commercial scale or could potentially act as a mere psychoactivity of a plant or a product, but rather
subsistence based crop for rural farming areas. on the intention of using that plant/product for its
The production of Industrial Cannabis in South psychoactivity, or not.
Africa should be easily facilitated after legalisation, • So-called “hemp” products corresponding to the
given that there has been a research permit in above-listed categories (i.) and (ii.) Would be labeled
place for 20 years at least. It is our wish that the “products with no psychoactivity-related purposes”
findings of this research aid the development (NPP), otherwise known as “fibre-type” Cannabis;
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of a viable NPP Cannabis industry in the near • Cannabis products in category (iii.) destined for
future . There are enough South African experts purposes of “adult use and medical use” would be
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to do this . However it is important to recognise labeled as “products with psychoactivity-related
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the need for hemp cultivation to develop under a purposes” (WPP), otherwise known as “drug-type”
regular, burdenless agricultural policy, not under Cannabis.
a sui generis Cannabis regulation policy, contrary
to the other uses of the plant (adult uses, medical Both NPP and WPP can actually include plants with
uses). Experience has shown that hemp policies potential psychoactive properties, the only criteria that
that look more like drug policies than like wheat should guide policymaking is the intention/purpose of
cultivation rules, fail in all aspects . use. The effective non-application of medical and adult-
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use Cannabis laws, to hemp, will ensure its cultivation
Scientifically, hemp is exactly the same plant can unfold under a regulatory framework similar to
as “marijuana”. “Dagga”, “ganja”, “hemp” or that of any other agricultural crop. However, several
“marijuana” all refer to the same botanical genus elements need to be considered, in particular:
and all its varieties: Cannabis sativa L. Hemp is a. Evidence-based THC threshold or other method to
only the vernacular name that has been used to distinguish a “hemp-type” growing Cannabis plant
designate the products of the Cannabis plant from a “medical/adult use-type” plant;
that are not destined to purposes related to its
psychoactive effects (and by extension to the b. Threshold or other method to distinguish a “hemp-
crops destined to manufacturing these products). type” Cannabis product from a “medical/ adult use-
The concept of “hemp” is hard to apply to policy type” product;
making, because it relies on a popular designation c. A policy enforcement avoiding barriers and
rather than on an evidence-based one. The three limitations, and normalising hemp as regular
main categories of products made from the agricultural crop with no penalties for “hot hemp”
Cannabis plant are: containing more than the anticipated levels of THC.

CANNABIS IN SOUTH AFRICA • THE PEOPLE’S PLANT • A Full-Spectrum Manifesto For Policy Reform 79