By Felicity Duncan
As you doubtless heard, the Constitutional Court yesterday decriminalised the cultivation and possession of cannabis by South African adults for personal, private consumption. The baton has now passed to Parliament, which must amend the law to uphold South Africans’ right to privacy (which is the bit of the Constitution the Con Court judgement relied on). You can read a great outline of the legal arguments here.
To me, this seems like a sensible first step towards the development of a commercial cannabis industry. The trend globally is for jurisdictions to start small – decriminalisation is a very common first step. A frequent second step is medical marijuana sold at licensed dispensaries, with commercial sale for recreational purposes usually the last port of call – so far, that Rubicon has been crossed only by Uruguay and a few US states, although Canada will soon have fully legal cannabis.
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There are, obviously, health and social concerns, but no more so (and, in fact, maybe quite a bit less so) than with alcohol, cigarettes, firearms, and fast food. More importantly, there is opportunity – a thriving cannabis industry could be a major job creator and tax revenue generator. Watch this space.
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