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Paper short abstract:

Despite the 2018 Constitutional Court of South Africa judgment declaring the prohibition of the use and cultivation of Cannabis within private spaces as unconstitutional and our government being instructed by the highest court in the land to amend the defects in the law, there has been no progress.

Paper long abstract:

Fields of Green for ALL NPC has been active in campaigning for the re-legalisation of Cannabis in South Africa since 2010. This paper will explore the solutions which we have offered and the current "Crisis Points" hampering progress. The issues will be explored within the context of our centuries-old Legacy Cannabis Industry and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Cannabis prohibition and the broader ‘war on drugs’ are policies that are a product of colonialism. This has led to a host of unintended negative consequences that are hampering development of evidence-based drug policy, fit for task in the 21st century. What is at issue is herbal Cannabis. The current conversation, internationally, is narrowly confined to pharmaceutical Cannabis without any consideration of the consequences for poorer countries with a legacy of the use, cultivation and trade in Cannabis. These are the countries that have been left behind as their former colonial masters relish the profits from high potency Cannabis that is grown indoors using excessive amounts of energy, for a market that is able to afford a pharmaceutical grade product that once grew in the wild in areas where, botanically, it was intended by nature, to grow. It was a diverse crop, a trusted and sustainable agricultural product.