Johannesburg - Andre du Plessis admits it proudly. Yes, he was the one who had disbursed the mysterious bankies of dagga seeds to the tables of delegates attending a government-hosted conference on the medical use of cannabis this week.

“God is in every garden,” smiles Du Plessis, of the Cannabis Working Group.

“Do try to grow those seeds. Plant them, water them and watch them grow.”

Of the stash of only three seeds that Du Plessis had deposited in small, zip-locked bags, some had been furtively stashed into handbags, while others were left, rejected at the Kopanong Conference Centre in Benoni.

The roundtable debated the use of cannabis legally for health purposes. 

Opening the debate, the Deputy Minister of Social Development, Mrs Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, said the conversatin was long overdue.

“We have called this roundtable to open up a debate on cannabis in line with the Constitution of the country which calls for open dialogue and citizenry participation in decision making.  This is the beginning of a lengthy dialogue through which we hope to take all South Africans along when the country’s final position on the use of cannabis is determined,” said Bogopane-Zulu.

The cannabis round table discussion is being hosted by the Social Development Department this week.

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s first ever conference on the use of cannabis as a medicine on Thursday heard that up to four million people were estimated to be using the drug in southern Africa, and while millions are spent to eradicate it, these efforts yield little results and often disadvantaged the poor.

The cannabis round table discussion was being hosted by the Social Development Department in Benoni this week and brought together doctors, lawyers, religious leaders and NGOs to discuss the viability of partial legalisation.

Johannesburg - The intersection be tween religion and constitutionalism has always been an uncomfortable one. Whether in the judicial or the political arena, one walks a tightrope in dealing with religion, especially in a constitutional democracy.

Those in public office need to be especially careful what they say about religion as they represent a multireligious society.

No one knows this better than Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng, who has had to negotiate this tightrope when he had expressed his views on religion.

The chief justice is the highest judicial officer and a public declaration of his faith is bound to ruffle feathers because many could take it as an endorsement of one religion over another, and this would not bode well for a democracy.

In “Weed the People,” Bainbridge Island author Bruce Barcott delivers a thorough and entertaining survey of the burgeoning legalization of marijuana in the U.S. Barcott appears April 15 at Seattle’s Elliott Bay Book Co.

‘Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America’ by Bruce Barcott Time, Inc., 400 pp., $22.95

Johannesburg - There will be no immediate discussion on the decriminalisation of cannabis, only a discussion on whether it can be used medicinally, Deputy Minister of Social Development Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu said at a conference on the topic on Thursday.

"'We are not going to have a broader discussion on decriminalisation," she said at a conference titled ''Cannibis for medicinal Use, Yes or No?'' held in Benoni.

But, she warned that all aspects of the use of cannabis, commonly known as dagga in South Africa, should be broached before any decision is made on whether medicinal use will become legal."

''I am neutral," she said, but the robust debates South Africans are known for needed to happen.

Are the medical benefits of cannabis being over-hyped? The government is looking into this at a conference about the safety and dangers of cannabis use in South Africa.

Dagga may have some medicinal qualities, but are the benefits of legalising it in South Africa worthwhile?

This is up for discussion at a two-day event by the Department of Social Development and the Central Drug Authority (CDA) taking place in Benoni on Thursday.

A controversial new documentary is set to have its World Premiere in Dunedin next week.

'Druglawed' is an explosive documentary exposing how New Zealand has been co-opted by the US into fighting the failed War On Drugs.

Filmed in six countries over six years, this is the first feature length documentary examining the effects of international cannabis prohibition on New Zealand society.

Over the last 100 years the US government has forced its drug control policies on almost every country on earth. Over 40 years since Richard Nixon declared the War On Drugs in 1972, 22 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana. Only one country in the world has higher arrest and conviction rates, New Zealand.

A weedkiller used on marijuana plants is said to pose a danger to the health of communities where subsistence farming is the mainstay.

The village of Bulawo in Port St Johns is tucked away deep in the hilly valleys of the pristine Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. The beauty of this coastal village is breathtaking, with waves crashing on the rocks and lush forests extending as far as the eye can see.

People who use high-potency cannabis (“skunk”) every day are five times more likely to have a schizophrenia-like psychotic episode than those who don’t, according to new research.

People who started using cannabis under the age of 15 year had “modestly, but significantly, increased risk of psychotic disorders”, according to the study,

But people who used low-potency (“hash”) cannabis – even daily – had no increased likelihood of psychotic disorders compared.

This is according to a six-year study conducted in south London, recently published in The Lancet Psychiatry medical journal.