South African Cannabis Industry Battles Stigma Despite Prospects

Police have been instructed to no longer arrest people for personal cultivation and/or possession of cannabis, GroundUp writes. There has been confusion regarding the legal position relating to cannabis since the Constitutional Court in 2018 ruled that cultivation and possession of the plant for private use is legal. This judgment has become known as Prince 3.

But the Constitutional Court did not confirm the decriminalisation of dealing in cannabis. This means that until Parliament changes legislation, dealing in cannabis, as defined by the Drugs and Trafficking Act, is still not permitted. This includes performing any act in connection with the transhipment, importation, cultivation (other than the cultivation of cannabis by an adult in a private space for personal use), collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission or exportation of the drug.

Meanwhile, the government said that progress has been made in the development of a policy for the hemp and cannabis sector, as stakeholders have collectively agreed on regulatory reforms. "These reforms will unlock the potential of cannabis in African traditional medicine; pharmaceutical and complementary medicines; human and animal ingestion, and multiple industrial applications," the Presidency said.

This can be see in a groundbreaking initiative in the iLembe District Municipality where the KwaZulu-Natal government plans to focus on growing cannabis and other indigenous plants as well as facilitate entry into markets so that all organic agricultural products can be exported to foreign countries.

Currently farmers who have licences, grow their hemp and cannabis indoors under controlled conditions. The commercialisation will allow them to farm outdoors on a larger scale. The opportunity to commercialise the hemp and cannabis industry is that it is a new, fast-growing, multi-billion dollar sector with local and international markets. The potential legal pharmaceutical market for hemp and cannabis in South Africa alone has been estimated at over R100 billion a year, The Conversation writes.