Page 132 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

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

workers. Therefore, the rights of workers need to focus on legacy and/or skilled people previously
be highlighted in a manner that will showcase involved in Cannabis-related activities under
Cannabis workers’ rights as a model that is both illegal settings. This is also a central element in the
economically viable and revolutionary in terms of ethical principle of historical justice, remedy and
the rights afforded to workers, often left behind on reparations for victims of human-rights abuses
the path to prosperity. overlapping in the name of Cannabis prohibition
(see section 3.1). All efforts must be made to utilise
A wide range of skills are required in all sectors, existing skilled labour as part of government’s
but it must be taken into account that the existing responsibility to assist and monitor the transition
non- regulated Cannabis industry already has of populations previously involved in Cannabis
many of these skills. Priority in employment should cultivation.

5.5.7 Cannabis Testing At Work

Since the de facto decriminalisation of Cannabis It is extremely difficult to visually recognise
cultivation, possession and use in a private space Cannabis intoxication. It rarely happens that
by the Constitutional Court of South Africa in someone uses Cannabis to the extent that
September 2018, some laws on the periphery of the they become incapacitated or unsteady in the
1992 Drugs & Drug Trafficking Act have become workplace. Therefore testing of this nature
outdated and are in serious and urgent need of becomes completely random, or it is used as
review. One such law is the Occupational Health a human-resources leverage tool. It is a simple
& Safety Act of 1993. The use of Cannabis is now process to have a known Cannabis user dismissed,
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sanctioned in a South African home, but remains even though their work ethic might be exemplary.
an illegal substance at work. At Fields Of Green “If you resign, we’ll give you a reference” is a typical
For ALL we have been subjected to the plight of employers’ stance.
individuals and workplace testing for many years.
We have a folder of emails from ex-employees who This being said, there are obviously careers that
were summarily dismissed for testing positive for require a zero tolerance for intoxicating substances
THC and want to know if they have any recourse. in the workplace. The South African mines are a
None of the tests being done (for Cannabis) can good example. Most industrial situations using
prove impairment, problematic use or time of heavy machinery already have a zero tolerance
last dose, and this is becoming the holy grail for policy in place and an employee would sign a
legislators and test companies. Unlike alcohol, contract to that effect. However, does that mean
cocaine and opiates, Cannabis sits in the body’s that those employees are simply banned from
fat cells for anything up to a month, so to use a ever using Cannabis? There would never be such a
workplace test that cannot prove an employee’s ban for visiting an alcohol consumption room after
intoxication invariably ends badly for the employee. work? Drug testing in the workplace will therefore
Testing should only be used to detect impairments always be a delicate balance between safety and
rather than the legal use of Cannabis in an privacy. What if an employee is using medical
employee’s private life . This is invariably not the Cannabis? Does that mean complete exclusion
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case. from that employment arena?
We believe no person should be subjected to Current methods for testing for Cannabis include
testing for Cannabis at work, unless there are hair, urine, saliva and blood testing – all of which
sufficient grounds that the employee is not are problematic for various reasons, including
fulfilling his/her duties in terms of an employment being invasive, taking time to administer and get
contract and there are also sufficient grounds to results and as mentioned, current methods of
suspect that the employee’s use of Cannabis is the testing do not indicate real-time impairment. The
cause of it. overwhelming problem with a drug test, whatever
the method utilised, is giving a yes/no answer
to an extremely complex, variable and organic

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