DEAR Editor,-
The Constitutional Court’s judgement of decriminalising marijuana possession for private cultivation and use was a refreshing step forward in a country that always seems to look back for economic and ideological inspiration.
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However, the High Court and Constitutional Court judgments are limited and flawed. Parliament must go much further when it comes to enacting legislation.
Decriminalisation that is restricted to private cultivation and use privileges those with land and discriminates against the disabled, elderly and those who need it for medical reasons. People living in flats, assisted-living homes, frail-care facilities, nursing homes and hospices cannot grow their own and need to purchase it.
It would be grossly unfair to criminally charge those who sell it to patients for medical reasons when healthy, able-bodied people who have gardens are legally free to grow their own for recreational reasons.
Marijuana is a traditional African remedy whose medicinal efficacy has been scientifically validated in recent years.
It is already a multi-billion-rand industry and has long been one of South Africa’s largest cash crops. Its commercialisation should be encouraged with the same restrictions that apply to alcohol.
Decriminalisation is an authentic black economic empowerment opportunity wherein all the ‘pot-growing criminals’ in poverty-stricken Eastern Cape can be part of the formal economy by partnering with major corporations who have national distribution channels.
Every country and American state that legalised marijuana has seen the development of a vibrant new industry that creates jobs and generates tax revenue. Coca Cola, Heineken, Corona and Guinness are developing cannabis-infused products and Canadian marijuana company stock prices are soaring in anticipation of full legalisation next month.
If only this mildly progressive step into South Africa’s future was infectious as we stew in the dreadful consequences of the ANC’s failed, irrational and corrupt land-reform policies.
In a few decades, beef will be grown in laboratories from cow stem cells and sprawling vegetable farms will go the way of the dodo as farmers and governments realise that vertical farming is infinitely more rational: The farmer controls the weather to enable year-round production which eliminates the need for expensive equipment like tractors; and little land is needed – a 10-storey farm can achieve a yield of 90 lettuce per square metre of land.
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Solar-powered vertical vegetables and marijuana farms could be located in urban and peri-urban areas adjacent to informal settlements to create jobs where they are most needed. It will reduce transportation costs to market and SA’s carbon footprint and free up millions of hectares for other uses and development.
Instead of seeing the job-creation prospects of new industries, our politicians and unions reflexively cling to the past – like resisting the introduction of clean energy to save coal-miners’ jobs. South Africans need to own the future of farming instead of trying to recreate and conquer traditional commercial farming methods, which will eventually become obsolete.
MANDY TOMSON
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