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| Endocannabinologist Dr Raquel Peyraube travelled from Urugay to observe South Africa's changing legal landscape regarding cannabis |
THE first Clinical Cannabis Convention in South Africa, hosted in
Johannesburg on Saturday, was a sellout success, with cars in the parking lot
from as far as the KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West provinces.
Arranged by the so-called Dagga Couple — Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke — to build on their challenge to the constitutionality of ongoing dagga
arrests in SA, the convention was also attended by former dagga users from
Concerned Youth for SA (Cypsa), based near Kranskop in KZN.
Their members have been protesting against the legalisation of
dagga outside the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria last week, where the
19-day “Trial of the Plant” is taking place.
“Alcohol and cigarettes are already killing the country; please
don’t add more challenges for the youth and poor communities to battle with in
future,” Cypsa states on its website.
Project Intergate co-ordinator and academic lecturer Shaun Shelly
told The Witness the aim of regulating all drugs was to reduce
harm.
He said criminalising drugs just created more criminals who do what
is expected of them. By changing these expectations, Shelly said his experiences
on the streets of Durban and Khayalitsha were that individuals and hence
communities can and do improve their circumstances.
British Professor David Nutt pointed out that the “fags and booze”
were the main causes of harm in any society, based on an empirical analysis of
all the data. When Nutt first made this point in 2009, he was fired by the UK
government as its chief drugs adviser, but his statements have since been
vindicated several times, especially in poor regions where foetal alcohol
syndrome sees generations of children born with neuro-developmental
disorders.
Dr Marlon Germon told the audience about the endocannabinoid
system. He said these cannabinoid receptors appear throughout the human body and
modulate cellular reactions to ensure homeostasis. He said it was shocking that
medical schools still do not teach about this system, despite the cannabinoid
receptors far outnumbering opiod receptors in the brain, organs and other
critical parts of the body.
Professor Donald Abrams, chief of the Hematology-Oncology division
at San Francisco General Hospital and a professor of clinical medicine at the
University of California San Francisco, said while cannabis helped patients
undergoing chemotherapy to lessen or even remove nausea and increase appetite,
none of the clinical reports to date show proof that cannabis can cure cancer.
He confirmed to The Witness that one may add “yet” to his
statement, as anecdototal evidence from former cancer patients is piling
up.
Counsel for The Trial of the Plant, advocate Don Mahon said while
he cannot speak about the trial, which resumes today, he is confident the next
step after the case will be an appeal, and not to the Supreme Court of Appeal,
but straight to the Constitutional Court, which is the only authority that can
order the legislature to change laws in South Africa.
