AFTER THE BELL: Why are SA’s cannabis rules still up in smoke?

While growing up, I was one of those slightly boring rule-abiding people who always made sure they had their blazer on when they needed to. I still remember the one day of my entire high school career when I went to school without a tie.I found by the time I had escaped school and was lucky enough to go to university that I was a slight rarity. I appeared to have no interest in alcohol or drugs.The one interest I managed to cultivate quite quickly. The other still holds no attraction for me.I know plenty of people who regularly use dagga, sometimes they smoke it, or bake it, or give it to their parents for pain relief or just to chill out.Somehow, I’m not one of them. My chill-out comes on the rocks. And woe betide the person, friend or otherwise, who suggests adding water or soda or anything else to it. [Business Maverick editor’s note: rookie snobbery, let us know when you’ve reached the level of sophistication where even ice is frowned upon...]But I’m always slightly amazed at the huge number of cannabis shops that have sprung up. Almost like the weed itself.I don’t know how they make any money. I almost never see anyone in them. I get that many people are clearly consuming cannabis, I just don’t know if they’re doing it from those shops.High lawsAs I understand the current law on cannabis, yes you can possess the stuff, but only for personal use. And only for use in your home. Basically, the original ruling that legalised the use of dagga still stands (that ruling is one of the many many things for which we have to thank former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo).That’s because while Parliament has passed the Cannabis for Personal Use Act, it still does not have regulations. As a result the act is not in operation.Which is amazing when you consider the court ruled on cannabis back in 2018. Eight years later and still our government has not worked out how to manage this.This morning, News24 Business ran a story suggesting the Gauteng SAPS were planning to raid many of these shops and, I presume, close them down. I suspect those police officers, as boring as you may find them, are entirely correct.These shops are all breaking the law, no matter how they try to claim to just be “buying clubs”, or “providing growing shelter” or whatever else it is that they say.Parliament hasn’t even got around to passing a law that allows for the selling of cannabis yet.High listingAmazingly, there is still a company listed on the JSE that has tried to become a cannabis business.Labat Africa, which has gone through various iterations, has bought several firms involved in the cannabis industry.While this might all be cool and sexy, and a lot less boring than your average Gauteng police officer, it hasn’t made any money.In fact, its shares are suspended due to a missing dividend, while Hollard Insurance has won a provisional order to wind the company up (due the vagaries of the English language, “winding up” a company means the exact opposite of what it would be rational to assume – it means “shutting it down”) because it hasn’t paid for a R20-million fuel guarantee.The real dynamic, which is obvious to everyone outside of those who sit in Parliament, is that we have a thriving and often wonderful informal sector that was previously illegal, which should be in the process of becoming a regulated formal one.Given the nature of the holy weed we will never have an entirely formal sector. And neither should we. You should be left alone to grow whichever grass you desire, so long as you don’t give it to children.What we are really dealing with is a hangover from our previous criminalisation of the stuff.What regulations?Under the current Cannabis for Personal Consumption Act, the actual amount you are allowed to possess for personal use is left to regulations for the minister to promulgate. Which don’t yet exist.The first suggestions during the parliamentary debates while the law was being passed were to only allow you to possess four dagga plants at any one time.I mean, seriously? You would be allowed to possess enough alcohol to cover your entire property up to the third floor entirely legally … but if you were found with four dagga plants and an extra leaf you could be hauled off to face the full impotent might of the law.When MPs wonder why no one respects them or the law, perhaps they should be reminded of this.In a horrible way, the way we treat cannabis reminds me of how we treated our solar industry for so long.We have wonderful dagga and wonderful sunlight. Look what happened when we harnessed our sunlight properly.Let’s do the same to our cannabis. DM