Page 146 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

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

without giving evidence. The same goes for our of Cannabis for personal use in private spaces
remaining witnesses in the fields of criminology, is unconstitutional. However, the highest court
industrial Cannabis and economics. Neither did in the land stopped short of endorsing the part
the main plaintiffs in the trial, Myrtle Clarke and of the Western Cape judgment that included
Julian Stobbs, get a chance to give their pivotal “purchase”. This reinforced the discrimination
evidence. It is now too late for Julian Stobbs to that traders in the Cannabis plant have faced for
ever have his day in court. so many years. We believe that this was picked
up on by the South African Police because,
In the Prince / Acton Case, heard in the Western since the judgment, there seems to have been
Cape High Court with the judgment being an obsession on the part of the police to harass
handed down by Judge Dennis Davis in March members of the public for any amount of
2017 and upheld by the Constitutional Court in Cannabis that they deem to be too much for
September 2018, the evidence of the plaintiffs personal use. The police were given sweeping
was described as “voluminous” and “of little powers by the court and their ignorance around
value to the determination of this application.” the harms of Cannabis continues unabated. This
In the second paragraph of the judgment, Judge was reinforced by our Minister of Police, Bheki
Davis states that “the relief which is sought is not Cele, stating publicly that Cannabis is a “gateway
particularly easy to divine because the application drug” , one of the pieces of gross misinformation
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brought before this Court is made by individual and drug-war propaganda that we were at pains
applicants whose application and papers reveal to dispel in The Trial of the Plant… Unfortunately,
a lack of legal precision, particularly in the we didn’t have a chance to do so.
framing of the relief sought.”
Litigation is a costly and time-consuming exercise
Hence we have a situation where no REAL and we feel that it would be unfair and illogical
evidence has ever been heard in court – for to force the plaintiffs in The Trial of the Plant
or against the legal regulation of Cannabis in back to court, because of poorly researched and
South Africa. propaganda-based regulations.

The legislature does not have any evidence to This very real threat manifested itself in the the
go by, save for Prof Nutt’s incomplete evidence draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, released
from August 2017 in the Pretoria High Court. The in 2020 . This “Bill” attempts to attach limits for
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perceived harms of Cannabis are the main point the amount its authors perceived as sufficient
in question here. How is the legislature going to for personal cultivation and use, without basing
determine whether Cannabis is less harmful than these limits on any concrete evidence. It does
alcohol and legislate accordingly? They may take not consider the evidence around the various
Prof Nutt’s incomplete evidence into account, as delivery methods of Cannabis and the amounts
it is available in both video and transcript format required. Neither does it show any recognition for
or the government could do the right thing and the illogical grey areas it creates by keeping trade
invite Prof Nutt back to South Africa to complete illegal. Fields of Green for ALL has submitted our
his evidence before a Dagga Commission. As it commentary on the “Bill” and we would like to
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happens, Prof Nutt has expressed his interest in note here too that the intensive list of penalties
coming back to South Africa to conduct a “multi- faced by transgressors will only perpetuate the
criteria decision analysis on drugs” that status quo. The document makes no sense
is specifically South African. and the lack of research behind its formation is

How can you have evidence-based policy with no obvious. Therefore, the matter will most probably
evidence? The Constitutional Court agreed with have to return to Court for a consideration of the
Judge Davis and declared that the prohibition real evidence.

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