Simon Howell,University of Cape TownandClemence Rusenga The global legal cannabis market is todayworth aboutUS$69.78 billion, and this will skyrocket toUS$216.76 billion by 2033. But is this boom benefiting indigenous cannabis farmers in southern Africa? They’d been growing the plant for hundreds of years before colonial authorities criminalised it in the early 1900s.
Rural people continued to grow it illicitly after that, relying on its medicinal properties. For many rural households in southern Africa today, cannabis pays for the family’s food,education,and other necessities. In South Africa, cannabis wasprohibitedunder different laws since1928.
In neighbouring Zimbabwe, theDangerous Drugs Actcriminalised cannabis in 1955, and this continued after independence. But in 2018, this changed. South Africa’s Constitutional Courtdecriminalisedprivate use and limited private cultivation for personal consumption, while Zimbabweregulatedthe cultivation of cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes.
Read Full Article on The Zimbabwean
[paywall]
We are social scientists who research cannabis and development in Africa. We interviewed a wide range of people, from political leaders to illicit growers to cannabis lobbyists and non-governmental organisations to technical people involved in the industry, such as greenhouse installers. We wanted touncoverthe challenges small-scale cannabis farmers faced after cannabis was decriminalised.
Our researchfoundthat cannabis reform has continued old patterns of unfairness. For example, we found that medicinal cannabis production is currently an exclusive business which only well off businesses can participate in. Farmers who traditionally cultivated cannabis and sold it when it was still illegal have not been included in the new cannabis industry.
If these problems are not solved, the potential of cannabis to be a tool for development in Zimbabwe and South Africa will remain unfulfilled. South Africa: privacy, rights and the slow turn to reform South Africa’s move towards legalisation was not triggered by the government but by the courts. The 2018 Constitutional Court rulingfound thatcriminalising private cannabis use violated the constitutional right to privacy.
The state couldn’t show a good enough reason to interfere with adults doing private things like smoking cannabis by consent, as long as no one else was being harmed. This decision created a ripple effect. It ignited public debate about personal freedoms. It also sparked discussion about whether cannabis could help redress historical injustices, create jobs, and boost economies in rural areas where the plant has long been cultivated.
[/paywall]
