We should be growing marijuana here in sunlight, reducing carbon pollution and earning ourselves some dollars in the process, writes Stephen Pain.

I have yet to read the texts recommended by Clifford Schaffer in his letter “Drug laws not helping” on March 15, but otherwise I agree wholeheartedly with his views.

Richard Nixon, under immense pressure following the US disaster in Vietnam and the looming Watergate affair, desperately needed a rallying cry to divert the public’s attention and a “war on drugs” fitted the bill perfectly.

It also put the blame for the thousands of returning heroin-addicted GIs wholly on the drug itself and not on their horrific wartime experiences.

The BRICS nations comprise of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, with a significant influence on regional and global affairs. What is the Brics’ stance on marijuana and why should you care?

As the West throttles down on its 45-year-old war on drugs, acknowledging that the trillion-dollar price tag has only fuelled civil conflict in Latin America, crowded the prisons at home, and harmed more addicts than it has healed, another bloc of nations is gearing up to implement the self-same failed policies. So guess who’s with China, Indonesia, Russia and the Middle East on this? Yup, South Africa, under the inspired guidance of the Hawks. KEVIN BLOOM reports.

I. The Hawks and the Kremlin Drug Czars

Growing up in Soweto was very tough. There were just too many challenges and that has led to many young men resorting to drugs to forget everything happening around them. In 1997 a man asked my friend’s mother if he can erect his shack on their yard and because they needed the money they allowed him to. This man was selling Dagga for a living. As teenagers at that time we used to help him package it for distribution and he will buy us food and also give us the spillage for us to enjoy. As teenagers we used to enjoy that on the back of the toilet and because the neighbours used to complain about the odour or smell so we then smoked it in the veld. A few other friends joined us in smoking as it was given to us for free.

Loyiso Maqela* doesn’t see himself as a drug dealer or a criminal.

The 31-year-old dagga grower from a village near Mpande, south of Port St Johns on the Wild Coast, sees himself as more of a cross between a farmer and a herbalist.

Maqela, one of thousands of small-scale growers in his area, has never had a formal job, apart from working as a gillie for fishermen at nearby Mpande Beach since he was forced to leave school at the end of Grade 4. He reckons that joining the region’s multimillion-rand marijuana trade was his only option.

Studies suggest cancer patient numbers will rise by 70%.

In a policy brief published by the Medical Research Council on January 5, the medicinal value of cannabinoids was officially – and historically – recognised in South Africa. Three days later, the president signed into law the Medicines and Related Substances Amendment Act of 2015, a piece of legislation that theoretically allows Big Pharma to feed our dagga to us in pill form – or, if we like, through a straw. KEVIN BLOOM reports.

1. For the winners

Cape Town – Police officers discovered a plot of towering dagga plants between shacks in a Rastafarian informal settlement in Cape Town on Thursday.

The Trio Crimes and Gangs Unit visited the Marcus Garvey community in Philippi on Thursday morning after a tip-off, Western Cape police spokesperson Constable Noloyiso Rwexana said on Friday.

Officers dug up and confiscated the plants - with a total estimated street value of R1.7m - between 05:30 and 10:00. 

Four men and a woman were arrested on charges of illegal cultivation of dagga. The group was due to appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court later on Friday.

JOHANNESBURG - The so-called Dagga Couple are months away from heading to the North Gauteng High Court, to fight for the "re-legalisation" of cannabis.

Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke were arrested in 2010 for possession with intent to sell dagga which they said was for personal use.

They've responded by suing five government departments for what they claim are draconian laws governing the use of the intoxicating herb.

Watch the video report by eNCA’s Nickolaus Bauer in the gallery above.