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| Hemp seed rate among the most nutritious seeds for human and animal consumption, while hemp oil is popular as medicine. The question is who lobby the hardest to keep it plants illegal? |
South Africa will legalise dagga, one day, but don’t hold your
breath, says BYRON ‘ANGIL’ BURNARD.
We spoke to Burnard on the United Nations, which tomorrow hosts a special session on the global
drug problem in New York from April 19 to 21, when cannabis users around the
world will be hoping their favourite plant finally gets rescheduled as a
controlled substance.
A rescheduling would make it easier for researchers to study the
plant and for doctors to prescribe it as a medicine. It would mean that in
KwaZulu-Natal, the excellent quality of cannabis cultivated in
the ideal climate of places such as the Midlands and Zululand can be given to people who suffer from painful diseases, such as Cancer and Lupus, or to the many police officers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
the ideal climate of places such as the Midlands and Zululand can be given to people who suffer from painful diseases, such as Cancer and Lupus, or to the many police officers suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Apart from these diseases, cannabis offers proven health benefits
for over 700 afflictions, relieving pain and lessening symptoms of conditions
ranging from autism to menstrual cramps and glaucoma. Anecdotal claims of
healing by the plant is as old as humanity itself.
Before the late IFP MP Dr. Mario Oriani-Ambriosini died of lung
cancer in August 2014, he pleaded with parliament to make these benefits
available to all South Africans by legalising at least the medicinal use of
cannabis.
Twenty months later, the Medical Innovations Bill he proposed is
all but forgotten and South Africa still has the ridiculous situation where
police arrest people for possessing high-protein cannabis seed, which are
packaged and distributed by Nature’s Choice to over 550 health shops in southern
Africa, including the DisChem Pharmacy in the Midlands Mall.
William Shakespeare, who probably smoked cannabis according to a
2015 analysis of fragments of the Bard’s pipes by South African anthropologist
Francis Thakaray, would have written a farce about it.
The sad irony is, if Ambriosini had smoked dagga instead of
cigarettes, he would have had a slightly reduced risk of contracting cancer
despite inhaling carcinogenic smoke, according to at least one study. For
illegal cannabis is benign to the human system, as opposed to legal nicotine,
which is deadly toxic.
In fact, all of the hemp plant is good for the human body, from the
warmth provided by the soft cloth made from its very long fibres; to all the
nutrition crammed into the seeds; to the therapeutic effects that its delta-9
tetrahydrocannabinol has on the nervous system; to the archival quality of the
paper made from the non-yellowing fibers, and the ability to produce organic
bio-fuel and bio-degradable plastics.
These societal benefits are ignored in the pseudo war police forces
around the world wage on the small percentage of people who smoke the plant. Yet
in terms of the latest trends, their arrests now fall in a legal area as grey as
the smoke their victimised users exhale. For in the U.S., Ambriosini’s last wish
has been realised, with all 50 states now allowing cannabis for medicinal use.
In the European Union, several countries have “re-legalised” cannabis, making
hemp growing as legal as it was in the years when all Dutch colonists, which
included New York, Goa and Cape Town, had to grow hemp for the Dutch navy by
royal decree. As far as can be ascertained, this decree has never been
cancelled.
In stark contrast to these developments, several organisations in
the BRICS countries are lobbying for stricter legislation. Leader of Iqela
Lentsango: The Dagga Party of South Africa, Jeremy Acton believes it is not
necessarily the pharmaceutical giants and foresters who fear the fast growing
hemp’s abilities, but the cannabis growers themselves who are lobbying for
tougher anti-cannabis laws.
For if anyone may grow cannabis, the bottom of the lucrative dagga
market will fall out overnight and street sellers will no longer be able to palm
off their dubious quality “chronic” at premium prices.
Meanwhile, South African judges in two high courts prefer not to
think about the outdated laws versus current social issues surrounding cannabis.
A number of cases challenging the constitutionality of prohibiting cannabis have
been awaiting a verdict for years.
In the Western Cape High Court, judges Davis, Boqwana and Skippers
have postponed a trial against five accused, awaiting an expert report from the
UCT’s Criminology Department on the status of legalising cannabis.
The Pretoria High Court has postponed the case against Gauteng’s
“Dagga Couple”, Myrtle Clarke and Joules Stobbs, who were arrested five years
ago for possession, until September 2016, if all the parties are trail
ready.
In KwaZulu-Natal, this author is preparing his own High Court
motions after being arrested for eating from a packet of Nature’s Choice Hemp
Seeds, bought at the DisChem Pharmacy in the Midlands Mall.
These cases will clear the way to grow and use cannabis freely.
Changing any law however takes years. In the interim, all users can but hope
that commanders at police stations around South Africa will cease from filling
their arrest quotas by ordering officers to round up people who choose to blow
smoke rings from a smouldering cannabis flower instead of a tobacco leaf. For
times are changing and as Bob Marley sang, “legalise it, don’t criticise
it.”
