Let’s light up…
Cypress Hill once sang (quoting Genesis 1:12) on the track ‘Legalise it’ from the seminal album ‘Black Sunday’ “I have given you all the seed-bearing plants on earth to use.” But the many so-called Christian countries subscribing to the Bible – South Africa included – didn’t see it that way.
I remember as a teen (and I know I’m not alone), the stern lectures from my parents about the horrors of the gateway ‘drug’ that was Cannabis/Marijuana/Ganja/etc. If I saw anyone smoking the weed, I could be certain they would land up in prison for a few years. After that, they would suffer a life-long torment of addiction to class-A drugs and live on the streets.
Two decades later and the lessons I was to have learned have been turned on their head: instead of users and sellers going to prison, this plant could land up being the business and health industry injection that South Africa needs so desperately.
There is an important distinction between legalisation and decriminalisation. While we live under the current ruling (decriminalisation), it is still possible for police to arrest if they see fit, with no clear guidelines. And selling cannabis is still an illegal pursuit. Legalisation would provide clear legislation keeping everyone safe.
Despite its illegality, activist and weedtrepreneur (yes, it’s a word) Tyrone Platt is bringing a professional approach to the fledgling industry, in as much as is possible under the conditions under which he works. He speaks of the incredible business opportunities, as well as the friends and community, he has found in the world of cannabis. The abiding tale that people tell of the cannabis world is of positivity, community, health improvement and economic freedom.
Consumers, too, also still fear prosecution regardless of the decriminalised status of the plant. What really stood out during conversations with several, was that their main focus was not ‘getting stoned’ but rather their appreciation for the community that cannabis creates.
Quanita Booley, aka That Kin Connie, is an activist and enthusiast who began her crusade just two years ago and has become a force to be reckoned with. Her involvement with The Global Cannabis March held this year in Cape Town showed the sheer numbers of people who are – still to this day – fighting for their right to embrace the plant fully.
As we discovered in our research, people from Africa consume almost double the amount of cannabis than those in other countries do. Africa has the land, the capacity and the desire to supply the globe, with the chance of pulling many nations out of the poverty zone and in franchising many with the opportunity for small scale farming.
People like Jeremy Acton, leader of ‘Iqula Lentsango: The Dagga Party of South Africa’ has been fighting for decades for legalisation, and firmly believes in the economic and ecological possibilities for the plant.
“This plant is essential to a sustainable future as the global economy depletes the planet's non-renewable resources (oil, metals, soil, etc). Legal cannabis production could allow everyone to participate equitably as producers in an economy and not just be consumers. This plant is our future,“ he said.
Not everyone will agree that cannabis should be legalised. However, we cannot ignore the existence of the culture, that it is immense and that it is going nowhere but forward.
