Page 126 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

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

5.5 Sustainability & Comprehensiveness Of The

Regulations – Overcoming Challenges

5.5.1 Office Of The Cannabis Ombudsman

Strictly speaking, an OmBUDsman is an The Office of the Cannabis OmBUDsman is a new
official who oversees an industry for customer body set up to include those with the knowledge and
complaints as a medium for dispute resolution skills required to do the job – an essential service for
between a consumer and litigation; effectively those government departments who have already
a mediator ensuring that regulation is effected indicated that they are under-resourced in terms of
fairly. We propose to use this term, but extend both budgetary, knowledge and skills resources. The
the “definition” in order to encompass the OmBUDsman staff should be democratically elected
duties of an industry association. This is because in one form or another, by all who register to be
“ensuring that regulation is effected fairly” part of the legal Cannabis industry and abide by the
is the primary responsibility of the Cannabis regulations.
OmBUDsman.The Office of the Cannabis
OmBUDsman is a clearing-house agency that We suggest the Office of the Cannabis OmBUDsman
will oversee the progressive implementation shall be appointed through a public and transparent
of regulations of the Commercial Pillar invitation process that takes into consideration all
(primarily) and gradually increase standards sectors and interested parties. The Office of the
and incrementally implement reforms. They will OmBUDsman will consist of:
be the facilitators between the government, Seven voting persons composed of:
people involved, and the private sector around • one health professional;
the issues of Cannabis. They will also protect the
rights of all people who use Cannabis, including • one Cannabis NGO representing civil society;
those who fall out of the commercial pillar (i.e. • one representative of law enforcement (in order to
home growers, dagga private clubs, medical facilitate a major reduction in the presence of law
patients, etc.). enforcement within the Cannabis arena);
• one legal professional;
The Office of the Cannabis OmBUDsman • one environmental specialist;
must have the resources and knowledge • one representative of Kasinomics;
necessary to operate an efficient and effective • one labour specialist/fair-trade specialist/union
regulatory system in tandem with the relevant representative.
government departments and support-industry
bodies. Resources can be accessed via various Along with these seven persons, six non-voting
membership models for those who benefit members, the coordinator of each task force, and a
from the services of the OmBUDsman, as well representative from each bureau:
as a government subsidy, which is reasonable to • Task force coordinator for women empowerment
expect, as the cost of keeping Cannabis illegal and gender equality;
will now be mitigated and can be “redirected”. • Task force coordinator for medical patients;
It is in the interests of the fiscus to fund the office • Task force coordinator for urban areas;
of the Cannabis OmBUDsman, as the work of the
office will ensure that the size of the unregulated • Task force coordinator for rural areas;
market will reduce according to its efficiency. • Representative of the Bureau of Traditions;
It will also provide very valuable access to • Representative of the Bureau of Historical Justice.
knowledge for those government departments The process of selection should draw on a pool of
who are enacting regulations. OmBUDsman experts who have specific knowledge of Cannabis and
staff must have extensive knowledge of the experience of the evolution of Cannabis from an illegal
Cannabis plant and ethnobotany, local and drug to a viable, regulated industry. This forms part
international drug policies, the history of of the mandate of these regulations to include those
Cannabis prohibition and Cannabis culture.
previously disadvantaged by Cannabis prohibition.

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