Despite Concourt ruling, cops arrest man for growing dagga

By Citizen Reporter

A 22-year-old man was arrested for cultivating dagga in Extension 5 of eMzinoni in Bethal, which will come a shock to many dagga users in South Africa who were celebrating the legalisation of private use of the plant.

The Ridge Times reports that a local crime prevention team, led by Constable Mluleki Methula, conducted crime prevention duties in the township near Bethal when they spotted green plants that they suspected were dagga plants.

They stopped at the gate and requested entry from the owner.

The suspect admitted that he was cultivating dagga. He will appear in the Bethal Magistrate’s Court.

It is, however, unclear on what basis the police arrested the man, as the private cultivation of marijuana was legalised on 18 September, for both the use and cultivation of cannabis in private.

Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo delivered a unanimous judgment that the ban on private possession, consumption and private cultivation of dagga at home was unconstitutional.

Parliament was given two years to change sections of both the Drug Trafficking Act and the Medicine Controls Act after these sections were found constitutionally invalid.

Zondo explained that individuals would now be allowed to smoke privately in their own home in the meanwhile, and be allowed to grow their own dagga.

South Africa’s Dagga Couple earlier this week warned South Africans that while an SA Police Service national directive had been issued that clearly explains to police that the use and cultivation of cannabis at home is now legal, law enforcers still have “sweeping powers” when it comes to any suspected “transporting, shipping, exporting, trading, prescribing, or otherwise making money from your weed”.

The couple, Jules Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke, have been legally involved in the fight for an end to cannabis prohibition in South Africa. They signed on as intervening parties to the case brought by Rastafarian lawyer and activist Gareth Prince and The Dagga Party’s Jeremy Acton that culminated in the Constitutional Court ruling.

They are also involved in a separate case dubbed The Trial of the Plant at the High Court in Pretoria that seeks to overturn all existing South African laws relating to cannabis.

The couple’s reservations about the amount of power the police still have when it comes to deciding what to do with those accused of making money from the plant are included in a post that is largely optimistic about SA policy on cannabis following the Constitutional Court ruling.

While police can arrest those they suspect of trying to make money from dagga “based on individual circumstances”, in cases where only dagga is involved and there are no other drugs, guns, or crimes involved, they now can no longer detain suspects, who will instead of being held in detention now be summoned to a court hearing at a later date.

According to the blog post: “This is groundbreaking stuff which will (hopefully) convince the cops to walk away and now focus on the people who hurt other people in our society.”

The couple also believes the ruling was among the most progressive in the world.

The South African Medical Association (Sama) has expressed reservations about changes to the law.

Sama said support structures were needed to curb the drug’s negative effects on society and to assist addicts. It is to make a submission to parliament in this regard.

Sama president Mzukisi Grootboom said the ruling “comes as the country faces a big problem of abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs”.

In support of the SA Society of Psychiatrists’ (Sasop) concerns about the ruling, Grootboom said documented evidence showed cannabis had extensive personal and societal side-effects. Sasop claimed that 9% of those who tried cannabis would become addicted to it, increasing to one in six when use started during adolescence.

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