A few months ago we posted an article about the South African National Cannabis Working Group’s 2013 Cannabis Position Paper. It is a very comprehensive and important document regarding cannabis’ past, present and potential future in South Africa. However, something covered in the report had been nagging at me ever since penning the article.

Below is an urgent plea from member of Parliament Dr. Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, author of the Medical Innovation Bill, a bill which aims to legalize Cannabis in South Africa for medical and industrial purposes:

The Medical Innovation Bill, a bill to legalize Cannabis in South Africa for medical, economic and industrial purposes, was introduced in parliament today.

The bill was submitted by Member of Parliament, Mario GR Oriani-Ambrosini from the Inkatha Freedom Party. The Medical Innovation Bill aims to make provision for innovations in medical treatments by legalising the use of cannabis for medical, economic and industrial purposes.

At least 800,000 Moroccans live off illegal marijuana cultivation, generating annual sales estimated at $10 billion, or 10 percent of the economy, according to the Moroccan Network for the Industrial and Medicinal use of Marijuana, a local charity. Photographer: Abdelhak Senna/AFP via Getty Images

Mustapha Tahiri, a cannabis farmer in northern Morocco, looks forward to the day he can sell his crop without worrying about being jailed. If lawmakers in the Islamist-led government have their way, that isn’t too far off.

Cape TimesLawyer Garreth Prince leaves the the Western Cape High Court where he has launched an application challenging the validity of laws that render dagga illegal. Picture: MICHAEL WALKER

Cape Town - A Rastafarian lawyer is challenging the legislation that outlaws dagga.

In an application lodged at the Western Cape High Court last month, Garreth Prince asks for certain sections of the Drugs and Drugs Trafficking Act, the Medicines and Related Substances Act and the Criminal Procedure Act to be declared invalid.

He is also asking for (among other things):

* A moratorium on all arrests for the use, possession, cultivation or transportation of small amounts of dagga - for personal use - should Parliament be ordered to “correct” the impugned provisions.

By Rebecca Harrison

After hours of scrambling over rugged mountain terrain, Swaziland's drug squad finally find what they're looking for: a secret field packed with some of the world's strongest dagga.

Prized for its potency across the world, "Swazi Gold" is grown in the remote northern mountains of this tiny African kingdom, then smuggled into neighbouring South Africa and on to Europe and North America.

Police in impoverished Swaziland say that despite dousing acres of towering plants with deadly insecticide, they are losing the war on dagga to dirt-poor peasants bent on protecting their most lucrative crop.

"We can't win this war," says inspector Ngwane Dlamini, head of criminal investigation in the northern region of Hhohho.

Eddie Koch

South Africa’s first legal dagga plot—- an experimental project near Rustenburg in the North West province—- has just completed pioneering research which could provide farmers with a lucrative new cash crop.

The Tobacco and Cotton Research Institute (TCRI) recently produced a report on a two-year research project aimed at developing a biological model for industrial hemp. This plant cannot be used as a drug but will have massive value as an industrial crop.