Dagga legislation: What were they smoking?

The Constitution is based on four pillars: equality, dignity, justice and freedom, and the bill regulating the use of cannabis for private purposes does not respect, promote, protect or advance any of those pillars, says Gareth Prince, lawyer and cannabis activist.

“In fact,” he argues, growing more animated, “it perpetuates the idea that cannabis is something more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco and needs to be highly regulated.”

To say Prince is disappointed by the bill is an understatement. It was Prince’s 20-year fight against what he describes as unfair discrimination against and persecution of Rastafarians and dagga smokers that culminated in a victory in the Constitutional Court in October 2018.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Cannabis sector on a high as new weed law for private use finally enacted

“It is this type of thinking that was declared unconstitutional by the court,” he says. “Government was ordered to change that and reasonably accommodate and incorporate the cannabis community into South African society.”  

Yet, as far as he and many others are concerned, the bill falls far short of what Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo and others envisaged in 2018.

The bill allows private possession of 600g of dried cannabis per adult in a private place and no more than 100g in a public place. It allows users to grow no more than four flowering cannabis plants in a private dwelling (or eight if there are two adults on the property)

Possession of an unlimited amount of cannabis seeds or seedlings (not bigger than 15cm tall or wide) is allowed.

But this does not mean cannabis is now free for all – far from it, say Andrew Keightley-Smith and Candice Grieve of Norton Rose Fulbright attorneys. 

In fact, the bill documents five pages of offences which make it illegal to cultivate or possess cannabis outside of the proscribed limits, cultivate or exchange cannabis for any type of reward or benefit, or smoke it in a public place. It is even illegal if you are spotted smoking through a window of your home, or smoking near a non-consenting adult or child.

“The penalties remain absurdly severe, including for instance possible prison sentences of up to four years for smoking in a car and up to 15 years for the cultivation or buying of more than nine flowering plants or getting a 17-year-old gardener to help cultivate one plant, unsupervised,” say Keightley-Smith and Grieve.

The other issue the bill fails to consider is the fact that millions of people live in backyard dwellings or shacks, where cultivation of anything in private is completely impossible.