Page 78 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9
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Fields of Green for ALL • Collectively Reforming South African Cannabis Laws
It is also impossible to establish how many citizens as probably carcinogenic to humans by the
are currently being incarcerated for Cannabis International Agency for Research on Cancer of
offenses. The issue of actual reparations for the WHO, in the aerial spraying of Cannabis crops
harm done through criminalisation over the past to control the illicit cultivation of Cannabis”
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100 years is a contentious one, given South Africa’s after receiving a documented submission by a
current political climate. This does not mean that Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network from
this should not be considered. As mentioned the Pondoland region . The Committee not only
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above, South Africa has the technological expertise recommended to the South African government to
to establish prisoner numbers and to set up a “suspend such aerial spraying” but also proposed
system for the cancellation of previous convictions. a way forward to integrate Cannabis farmers into
The authorities will need to be supported in both the legal economy, proposing to “offer alternative
designing and implementing this system and development programmes to the affected
there must be the political will to see this through. communities to encourage them to abandon
the illicit cultivation of Cannabis, including the
Historical injustices relating to Cannabis possibility of participating in the medical Cannabis
prohibition and, in particular, to farming market through a licensing programme for small-
communities living in the former “Bantustans”, scale community farmers.” A pilot programme of
must be considered for urgent remedy. In this kind was launched in August 2019 in Jamaica ,
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consideration of the economic climate in South but any success in this program is yet to be seen.
Africa at present, it would not be fortuitous to
claim financial reparation at the outset. There are Alternative Development (AD) programmes
many ways in which our current government can are often proposed as a way for authorities to
compensate those who have been wronged. “encourage producers of drug crops to shift to
remunerative alternative crops” . AD has often
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The scope of historical injustices and Human been seen as meaning 1) eradication of Cannabis
Rights violations-related remedies and reparations crops and 2) grants to plant other types of crops
must cover (but not be limited to): (often rice, cacao, coffee, etc.) however AD is simply
• Prisoners of prohibition (Liberation, the transition from illegal crops to legal crops,
reintegration measures, incentives for inclusion not necessarily excluding legal “drug-crops” .
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in legal markets), If Cannabis is being regulated, AD should be
• Victims of crop fumigations and aerial implemented and it should target legal Cannabis
spraying (Full health care coverage, in- production as an outcome of the programmes.
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depth health checks, community rights to soil In 2013, the Ambassador of South Africa declared
evaluation and decontamination, incentives for
legal markets, etc.), including collateral victims at the United Nations that the government was
not directly related to Cannabis cultivation, but considering “alternative development strategies
also affected by the destruction of their crops, that invest in the infrastructure and equipment
the contamination of their environment or their needed to support the social and human
development of rural populations, whose livelihood
own health, is dependent on the Cannabis plant.” It is time
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• Other victims of prohibition should also benefit to use AD programmes and funding streams to
from State incentives for facilitated insertion provide a remedy for the victims of prohibition,
into legally regulated Cannabis markets. particularly those affected by crop-eradication
In late 2018, the UN Committee on Economic, measures and related environmental impacts –
Social and Cultural Rights expressed its concerns and to prioritise reintegrating them into the new
“about the use of glyphosate, which was classified legal economy.
34 CANNABIS IN SOUTH AFRICA • THE PEOPLE’S PLANT • A Full-Spectrum Manifesto For Policy Reform