Dagga prohibition needs to end
We need a rational approach, grounded in evidence, to growing, selling and consuming cannabis products
Ground Up (South Africa)
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Despite the far-sighted rulings by Judge Dennis Davis and two colleagues in the Cape High Court, and then the unanimous Constitutional Court, that allowed private use of cannabis, the state of dagga legislation in South Africa remains similar to that of alcohol during US prohibition.These are some of the common consequences: small-scale growers are constantly in skirmishes with the law, poor people end up in prison for selling, dangerous gangs form to enforce some order on the trade outside the law, and high-placed officials in justice administration become enmeshed in corruption, damaging the entire state. Prohibition, which for decades has criminalised people trying to make a meagre living, should end.
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