Pointing green fingers

The world has been lit up with calls to legalise marijuana and fueling the fire is the growing belief in the plant’s numerous medical benefits. The debate is now burning here in South Africa, and with over 1 000 000 citizens demanding their right to access it, will legal green go up in smoke?

For a while now it has been claimed that cannabis – also known as marijuana, or ‘dagga’ as it is referred to in South Africa – holds a number of medical applications. This includes the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and arthritis, to name but a few, which many South Africans are saying should be made freely available to patients suffering with these conditions.

“I suffer from arthritis and if the government legalised marijuana, I would definitely use it,” said Ann-Marie Pouw, a 67-year-old pensioner from La Mercy who has been afflicted with arthritis for almost 15 years, but has never used the plant because she is worried about its illegal status.

A significant number of medical professionals agree with the calls to open access to medical marijuana for patients suffering from chronic conditions such as cancer.

“I have seen the positive effects marijuana can offer patients and it should be available for medical use,” said Jaime Ernst, a trained nurse and grief counsellor at the Cancer Support Network who agrees that the plant is useful for relieving pain, aiding sleep and stimulating the appetite of patients.

Ernst went on to say that pain has to be measured in order to be managed and that recreational use of the plant is irresponsible.

Marijuana has been used by people the world over since before records began, with around eight percent of the South African population using it daily – twice the global average.

Here in Ballito, however, the people are divided. Among residents, there are fears that the legalisation of medical marijuana will open the doors for widespread recreational use and an increased rate of addiction to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin.

Supporters of legalisation, however, say that this ‘gateway effect’ already exists in the form of alcohol, which one tourist from Cape Town said was totally normalised and even accepted..

“It would not be a good thing to legalise dagga because it can ruin your life by making you lazy and unmotivated,” said Khulekani Thela, a waiter at Zara’s Café who believes the lifting of the ban on marijuana would lead to more social problems, especially among the youth.

According to Vice News, however, in the full 10 000-year recorded use of marijuana, not one death has been linked to its consumption. Tobacco, on the other hand, is responsible for nearly six million deaths worldwide per year, while alcohol is to blame for almost three million.

“As long as alcohol and cigarettes are freely available, I see no reason why marijuana should not be,” said Ballito resident Claudia Hardt on the Courier’s Facebook page.

A sizeable number of people agreed with this viewpoint, who believe South Africa should not only legalise marijuana for medicinal purposes, but should emulate the Amsterdam model by legalising the plant outright and regulating the market through taxation and controlled supply.

This would also open up the economy to a whole new market, and with national unemployment sitting at the high figure of 25.5 percent, the move could serve as an expansive job creation initiative.

“Cannabis should definitely be legalised – it would remove the black market demand and make it safer for everyone concerned. It is about time these outdated laws are changed,” said Andrea Moll and Eduan Theron, a couple in their 20s on holiday from Pretoria.

“It has to be legalised, but I do not think it will be because the government knows that it cannot tax every dagga plant grown by the people,” said Blessing Dladla, who believes the plant is relatively harmless and that alcohol is responsible for more problems.

Other people questioned on the Dolphin Coast remained steadfast in their opposition to a change in marijuana legislation, fearing that social problems in their communities would only worsen.

“Dagga is different to alcohol or tobacco – it demotivates you and allows you to make poor decisions,” said Nkosingiphile Sithole, a Shaka’s Head resident who works in Ballito and claimed that marijuana is used widely among young people, many of them still in school.