SA Citizens Approach High Court in Ground-breaking Attempt to Decriminalise Hemp

Friends of Hemp South Africa seeks to decriminalise hemp to leverage South Africa’s unique value proposition to become a major force in the rapidly expanding global hemp industry, while also contributing to commerce development efforts so desperately required for the country’s post-Covid economic recovery.

While hemp and dagga come from the same plant, they are recognised as distinct subspecies. Hemp is not listed, and has never been listed, as a controlled substance under the International UN Conventions that govern the regulation of narcotics. However, the South African government does not have a specific definition of hemp as distinct from dagga/cannabis, nor a definition of dagga itself. It considers dagga/cannabis, “the whole plant, and any part thereof,” as a narcotic under the Drugs & Drugs Trafficking Act of 1992, thereby unreasonably and unjustifiably criminalising hemp. This legislation is inconsistent with recent changes to the Medicines Act and misaligned with scientific evidence, legal precedent, and actions of our neighbours and international counterparts.

Co-founder, Sophia Richter, says, “South Africa is being left behind by the rest of the world. While we prohibit the participation of our citizens in the hemp economy, we allow for the import of hemp-based products into South Africa and the export of value abroad. This surely cannot be the vision of cannabis/hemp development held by the President of the Republic.”

• Hemp is the non-psychoactive form of Cannabis that has been used throughout the world for millennia to make more than 25,000 products across many industries.
• The global industry today is estimated at a conservative R70 billion, but it is expected by some estimates to reach nearly R580 billion over the next 5 years.
• Hemp cultivation on 25,000 hectares can create at least 200,000 permanent jobs (in primary production, processing/manufacturing, and services) in South Africa.

Friends of Hemp (NPO) is a broad-based alliance of South African citizens from across the private sector, research institutions, government, NGOs/CSO, and associations. Their current campaign seeks to urgently raise funds to support legal action to have commercial hemp redefined as an agricultural crop (instead of a dependence-producing drug). Supporters of the cause are invited to make donations through the Friends of Hemp website, or the dedicated crowd-funding page. Without prejudice to other meaningful causes which Friends of Hemp support, this particular legal action will unlock the fundamental stumbling block and obstacle to the development of the South African cannabis/hemp industry.

Photo by Matteo Paganelli on Unsplash

Relevant pages on AgribookDigital include “Fibre crops” (which includes notes on hemp) and “Cannabis“.