As South Africa’s cannabis industry celebrates the legalisation of cannabis use, Trenton Birch, the CEO and co-founder of Cheeba Africa Cannabis Academy, reckons it is only half the battle won. The next step is to make sure that traditional cannabis farmers and Rastafarian communities benefit from the new law.
On the eve of the general elections, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the Cannabis Private Purposes Act, making South Africa the first African nation to legalise the use of marijuana.
According to Birch, the act is a monumental step forward, especially considering that Ramaphosa’s signature means the removal of cannabis from the Drug Trafficking Act, making the cultivation and use of cannabis no longer an act of criminality.
“This decriminalisation has already garnered significant international attention and investment interest, presenting a more digestible sector for investors,” Birch noted.
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Next steps…
However, the act does not address the concerns of traditional farmers, Rastafarian and indigenous knowledge communities, who remain in a precarious legal position, Birch told Food For Mzansi.
“The frustration should not be with the act but with the next step forward in terms of how we get legislation.
“At the moment, we have a big issue with the government because they are not dealing with the [traditional] farmers. The medical side of this industry has allowed people with capital to cultivate cannabis legally, while farmers who have been cultivating in their rural areas for decades are still criminals, and that is the travesty that has not been dealt with,” Birch stated.
According to Dinake Nongo Motona, a cannabis farmer and deputy national chairperson of the African Farmers’ Association of South Africa’s cannabis chamber, there are several aspects of the new law that might pose challenges.
For one, the regulations around cultivation, possession, and distribution need to be clearly defined to avoid legal ambiguities, he said. The distinction between private use and commercial activities must be clear to prevent unlawful practices.
“Additionally, the enforcement of these regulations needs to be balanced to ensure that small-scale farmers and individuals are not unfairly targeted. There are also concerns about how the law addresses issues of quality control, safety standards, and the potential for illegal trade,” Motona said.
Good news for next planting season
Garth Strachan, a project manager in the presidency responsible for the cannabis and hemp sector, detailed that while the act now allows private cultivation and private use of cannabis, it does not allow trade.
“Licensed growers can still export cannabis under separate licenses, and the legal teams are working on regulations to be appended to the Private Purposes Act,” Strachan explained.
“Farmers in the next planting season are free to go ahead and cultivate hemp on a much larger scale. The department of agriculture, land reform and rural development (DALRRD) has already issued 800 permits, signalling a readiness to scale up hemp cultivation significantly.”
Garth Strachan
However, Birch highlighted that while the act enables the operation of private cannabis clubs as non-profit organisations, more clarity is required to allow rural farmers to cultivate within this model. More comprehensive legislation is needed, he added.
“Such legislation would create a regulated adult-use market and address the socio-economic harm caused by existing legal disparities.
“The journey towards a fully inclusive and regulated cannabis market continues, with the next steps crucial for the industry’s future and the communities it serves,” Birch said.
Not entirely legal, yet
Meanwhile, Strachan explained that with this act, hemp will now be officially recognised as an agricultural product. This means that there will be opportunities to develop a systematic approach to its production, ensuring the use of suitable seed varieties and addressing concerns related to how pollen spreads across different areas.
“Efforts are also underway to ensure market development keeps pace with cultivation… We need to be careful of intervening only on the supply side. If farmers end up not growing large amounts of hemp, then there is no demand, which is why we are focusing on the midstream sector to ensure that there is investment in processing midstream into the demand pathways,” Strachan explained.
The process of changing regulations, which involves making amendments to laws like the Drugs Act and the Plant Acts, is expected to take another three to four months. This means that in the meantime, trading cannabis without the proper licenses is still against the law.
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