With the laws about cannabis use and sale continuing to change, two South African students are busy finding new and more efficient ways to grow the controversial plant.

In South Africa, cannabis can still not be cultivated or sold commercially. There is a lot of hope for a future cannabis industry to become transformative.

LEGALISING CANNABIS

There are many examples worldwide of countries that have legalised commercial growth and sale of cannabis. This based on the number of jobs and money it has injected into their respective economies.

It may be hard to pinpoint the exact time when cannabis will be legalized worldwide, but it’s a safe bet that eventually, most, if not all of the planet, will end cannabis prohibition.

In theory, there could always be a limited amount of countries that stay on the wrong side of history for a very long time. However, most countries will presumably legalize at some point.

Cannabis prohibition is a failed public policy wherever it exists, and that, combined with the economic benefits of a vibrant cannabis industry, is going to influence lawmakers around the globe to step up and end prohibition in their jurisdictions.

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane wants to make the province home to South Africa’s first cannabis industry – already reading proposals from interested international parties, and working on feasibility studies to register farms.

Speaking to the City Press, Mabuyane said that people had been growing cannabis in the province for years, but now the opportunity exists to formalise it, and turn it into a lucrative industry.

He said that the stigma attached to cannabis is that of smoking and getting high, but in markets in Europe and Canada, there is a large industry built around the plant, which includes medicines, bio-fuels and other products.

“This plant does not harm us!’’ dagga activist Myrtle Clarke declared as hundreds of people marched through the Cape Town CBD on Saturday.

Clarke‚ who along with her partner Jules Stobbs are known as the ‘’Dagga Couple’’‚ addressed cannabis enthusiasts near the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. A video of their address has been posted to their Facebook page.

She referred to the landmark judgment delivered in the High Court in Cape Town this year which found that the criminalisation of dagga was unconstitutional. The court also found that the ban on the personal use of dagga by adults in their homes was an infringement of their constitutional right to privacy. The case was brought to court by

Johan and Mirishin are a couple who have been distributing medical marijuana for the last three years. Step into their consultation room and see just how this herb may change South Africa’s medical scene.

Last week's court ruling allowing home use of marijuana has sent South Africa buzzing about the possibility that cannabis will now be widely legal in the Rainbow Nation.

To which pro-marijuana activist Julian Stobbs says: Chill.

Friday’s ruling from the Western Cape province High Court does apply across the nation, but the decision is really more about privacy than it is about pot.

The ruling struck down part of an old law that prohibits private and personal use of marijuana. The ruling still has to be solidified by parliament and pass through the constitutional court, which could take up to two years.

While some South Africans are celebrating the announcement that government is taking a step toward legalising cannabis for medical use, activists and users of cannabis-based medicines are wary.

South Africans have been self-medicating with cannabis medicines – primarily in the form of oil – for a long time. It was only when the late IFP MP, Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, brought the benefits of cannabis to the attention of Parliament in 2014, that the potential medicinal value of cannabis was seriously considered by South African legislators.

The South African parliament has listened to a motion to legalize the cultivation and usage of cannabis sativa or marijuana.

South Africa is set to legalize the cultivation and use of marijuana, known locally as “dagga,” as early as April 2017, making it the first African nation to permit its usage for medical purposes, reports Afkinsider.

History of the Bill

In 2014, Mario Oriani-Ambrosini, a South African MP elected on the platform of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), moved a motion in parliament calling for the legalization of marijuana for medical usage.

The government has given the green light for the manufacture of cannabis for medicinal use – with the IFP hailing it a “major victory” and tribute to its late MP, Mario Oriani-Ambrosini who fought for the legalisation of the drug.

IFP MP Narend Singh said a letter sent to him by the Medical Control Council’s working group on cannabis – and seen by The Mercury – indicated it would publish its proposed guidelines on cannabis production for medicinal use following its presentation to the council last week. 

“This is a major breakthrough and fantastic news for freedom of choice,” said Singh.