Why has cannabis been illegal for so long?

I want to mention I am not a raging anarchist and I don’t believe teenagers should be smoking pot.

February 19, 2018

Johané Turkstra 3 minutes read

Last week the City Times published an article about the police seizing R500 000 worth of cannabis in the Benoni Agricultural Holdings.

READ:

Two arrested, drugs worth approximately R500 000 found on property

Of course, I have an opinion on this.

I believe it should be every grown person’s choice to use or not use cannabis, as with alcohol.

Most of us grew up in a society that is polarised on the subject, and I have been in the middle of the dagga debate most of my life.

When I attended university, I tried it and I didn’t like it.

I admit this with confidence because I firmly believe cannabis should be an individual choice.

Am I a doctor? No.

Did I study neurophysiology? No.

Neither do I have comprehension issues nor a lack of common sense.

I have been reading about the affects of cannabis since I first heard a little bird whispering that marijuana isn’t grown exclusively in the Devil’s herb garden, as my parents would’ve liked me to believe.

About a year ago the Western Cape High court ruled the law against the possession and growing of cannabis for personal use is unconstitutional.

I phoned the leader of the Dagga Party, Jeremy Acton, to establish what this means for the South African cannabis culture.

He said the new legislation would protect individuals who choose to consume home-grown cannabis in the privacy of their homes.

Acton said the judgement was only given in terms of section 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy, but he has submitted other claims.

He said the claims have not been dismissed and are in the process of being reviewed.

Parliament has two years to amend the current legislation following the judgement.

Theoretically, the plant is still illegal, but what I don’t understand is, why it has been illegal for so long?

To illustrate my confusion, I have decided to compare a legal drug to illegal cannabis.

The active ingredient in Viagra is sildenafil citrate, along with 10 other inactive ingredients, among others aluminium and titanium dioxide.

According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the US, the side-effects of sildenafil citrate can include headaches, heartburn, diarrhoea, hot flushes, nosebleeds and insomnia.

It can even lead to sudden blindness and loss of hearing, dizziness, fainting, chest pains, shortness of breath and a painful erection that lasts longer than four hours, no surprises there.

In all fairness, I will mention the active substance and side-effects of marijuana as well.

The ingredient that makes you ‘high’ is called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and the plant also contains cannabidiol.

That’s it, two chemicals that occur naturally when cannabis is dried and cured, a process with less steps than fermenting alcohol.

The Open Neurology Journal published an article explaining that the side effects of cannabis “are of mild to moderate severity, appear to decline over time, and are reported less frequently in experienced than in naïve users”.

Their studies found the most frequent side-effects to be dizziness or light-headedness, dry mouth, fatigue and muscle weakness.

Coughs and throat irritation are reported in trials of smoked cannabis.

Not, in fact, blindness or hallucinations.

What is even more noteworthy to me is that the article states that there is no doubt that cannabis has immense medical potential; it can help treat chronic pain, nausea, anorexia, multiple sclerosis and cancer-related pain.

The authors write that because of its illegal and controversial status, marijuana as a medical treatment hasn’t been researched much.

How can it be possible that a plant that grows in dirt is illegal, but a pill that is human-made, by combining processed and engineered chemicals intended to improve sexual performance, is regarded ‘more safe’ by society?

It seems physically impossible to overdose on marijuana; such a case has never been reported in the history of humankind.

It is, however, possible to die of caffeine poison if you drink too much Red Bull.

You can also die of alcohol poisoning, if you drink too much vodka with your Red Bull.

Yet, caffeine and alcohol are regarded as perfectly normal.