KZN cannabis lounge proves a point

Its not all lies on this 1950 poster, that highway is a happening.

KwaZulu-Natal’s first Purple Haze Lounge has now been operating for three weeks near Umhlanga, where a steady flow of clients are proving a point the partners behind the lounge wanted to make.
These partners are Bongikosi Blose, whose Rastafari name is Hail Negus; and Krithi Thaver, the man behind CannaCulture and Holistic Releaf.
Thaver said Durban had fallen behind other cities that boast a trendy cannabis lounge. Hence he decided to change SA’s first dagga dispensary into a dagga museum by day and cannabis lounge by
night.

Krithi Thaver, and Bongikosi Blose, whose Rastafari name is Hail Negus.

To get around SA laws that still forbid dealing in; or possessing any part of the Cannabis plant in public, the lounge is very much an off-the-map, by-invite-only, private club.
Once inside, members cannot buy cannabis. Instead, they buy tokens that the staff behind the counter will exchange for various strains of bud or edibles.

No Reefer Madness here. 

The talks at this counter may as well be at a wine auction, with much discussion of flavour, taste and effect.
Discussing the effects takes rather longer than a wine talk, for where fermented grapes just get you drunk, cannabis can make you from energetic and creative, to calm and sleepy.
Two effects all weed users share, however, is feeling friendly and peckish, thanks to the plant’s stimulation of oxytocin and ghrelin — the “love” and “hunger” hormones.
To cater for these munchies, the lounge also supplies cakes and coffees, but no alcohol.
Eating delicious cake among friendly people of all ages, colours and creeds felt a little unreal — like being in a politically correct TV-ad.
This was hardly the pit of sin the authorities warned I would find in a dagga den.
“Where,” I asked Blose, “are the drug crazed addicts? Where, especially, are the lust-crazed women all those 1950s ‘Reefer Madness’ posters promised I would find here?”
Blose said this was exactly the point they wanted to prove with KZN’s first cannabis lounge — that dagga is much better for society that alcohol.

The author while still taking notes.

Better to have friendly people raiding the fridge than drunk people fighting each other. There are also many health benefits, but I must confess my Gonzo note-taking faltered at this point (the bud recommended for me really hit the spot and the music was pumpin’) but one conversation stands out.

This bit of this bud really hit the spot.

Thaver, who has been preaching and teaching the use of cannabis for almost a decade and who started the Cannabis Development Council of SA, is very frustrated with the slow pace of legal reform in South Africa.
He said little Lesotho is already exporting tonnes of medicinal-grade cannabis from a few small farms, and can only hope all the talk in big Mzansi will come to similar action. Meanwhile, he and other dagga activists will continue to show how this herb can create jobs through industrial products and recreational services.
• Readers who want to be invited to the lounge near Umhlanga can contact 065 883 1604. Tell them you are with me.