First, We Need to Stop the Arrests for Low-Level Use, but Decriminalisation Doesn't Go Far Enough; We Must Push for Legalisation, Write Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs

THE CRACKS in the policies that prohibit the use, cultivation and trade in cannabis in South Africa are beginning to show. Fields of Green for All representatives attended the recent UN special session on drugs in New York as civil society delegates. Our minister of police and deputy minister of social development were there in their official capacity.

[continues 1276 words]

ONE of the Western Cape's top police officers has called for a review of South Africa's war on drugs.

And the SA National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence (Sanca) and the Central Drug Authority (CDA) agreed with the province's deputy police commissioner, Jeremy Vearey, that a strict regime of law enforcement and demand reduction had been ineffective in fighting the use of illegal drugs.

In a status update posted recently on Facebook, Vearey used the example of a Liverpool psychiatrist, John Marks, who while consulting for Britain's National Health Service in the early 1980s, gave crack cocaine and heroin to his drug-addicted patients to prevent them from "robbing and mugging to fund their habit".

[continues 504 words]

Trial of the Plant to Lay Foundation for Future Policy

THE CRACKS in the policies that prohibit the use, cultivation and trade in cannabis in South Africa are beginning to show. Fields of Green for ALL representatives attended the recent UN Special Session on Drugs in New York as civil society delegates. Our minister of police and deputy minister of social development were there in their official capacities. But South Africa's comments on the outcome document were as bland as most of the other countries, and a report that described the whole special session as a "damp squib" was quite accurate. Dagga couple Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs seem to be making headway in their fight for the legalisation of cannabis.

[continues 1126 words]

SA Can Join Countries in Showing Shortcomings and Deciding on Policies

THE CRACKS in the policies that prohibit the use, cultivation and trade in cannabis in South Africa are beginning to show. Fields of Green for ALL representatives attended the recent UN Special Session on Drugs in New York as civil society delegates. Our Minister of Police and Deputy Minister of Social Development were there in their official capacity. But South Africa's comments on the outcome document were as bland as the majority of other countries, and a report that described the special session as a "damp squib" was quite accurate.

[continues 1243 words]

The Gauteng provincial government yesterday took to the streets of Hillbrow to spread the word on its drug rehabilitation programme as part of Child Protection Week, which started on Sunday.

The "radical" programme implemented by the Gauteng department of social development is aimed at compelling the rehabilitation of young drug addicts, who pose a danger to themselves and others.

Gauteng social development MEC Nandi Mayathula-Khoza said government was embarking on the campaign to raise awareness on the rights of children and intervention and prevention programmes available for drug addicts.

[continues 128 words]

JOHANNESBURG - Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema yesterday said he supported the legalisation of dagga.

"We have no problem with marijuana being legalised. It must be legalised. It must be dealt with professionally so that it is not abused and used for wrong purposes," Malema told reporters at the EFF's national list conference in Midrand.

"I think alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. I tried [marijuana] once and then after trying I went home to cook and I messed up everything in the kitchen."

[continues 129 words]

IT'S Tuesday morning on Goud Street in central Johannesburg. Jomo's cohorts are injecting two shots of nyaope into his neck.

He can't sleep without a dose. "I have been through hell, my brother. This is the life that works for me."

Jomo, who will not reveal his surname, says he has been in the city for more than 15 years. He arrived in 2000 from Mpumalanga and has been hustling since.

"I once had a job at a bakery in Bree Street. When it closed down I tried to survive but I ended up on the streets.

[continues 1024 words]

The Sh1 Billion Allocation to Boost Miraa Farmers in Kenya Is Godsend but Critics Have Their Concerns

The recent move to allocate Sh1billion to boost miraa farmers in Kenya is a blessing to the farmers but market for the commodity still remains a big challenge.

Until recently, miraa had been deemed a rejected crop following the controversies after the international ban in the European market in 2014.

The situation changed two weeks ago when President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law, a bill categorising miraa as a cash crop.

[continues 2152 words]

I WAS interested - and I must admit, rather pleased - to read that about 6 000 people had taken part in a march in central Cape Town in an effort to have the law changed regarding the use of medical marijuana. The problem with people in authority seems to be a lack of understanding about "drugs" in general.

Say the word "marijuana" and the official mind immediately clicks shut and thinks: "crime, dagga, violence, evil, gangsters", and so on.

Marijuana is a drug, just like millions of other drugs. Aspirin is a drugs, cough medicines are drugs, paracetamol is a drug, alcohol is a drug, laxatives are drugs.

[continues 453 words]

THOUSANDS joined the call to legalise and regulate marijuana in a march through the city centre at the weekend.

At the annual Cannabis March on Saturday, people walked from the corner of Tennant and Keizersgracht streets, through the heart of Cape Town up Long Street and down the Company's Garden.

Johannes Berkhout of Bongalong, the company which organised the march, said there was growing interest in the legalisation of cannabis, citing its benefits.

"People that were present at the event range from doctors to technicians. These are not people who get high when they go to work, but they support the legalisation and regulation of it," said Berkhout.

Berkhout added that with public events like the march, the stigma around cannabis use was lessened. "We want government to give us feedback on this. They say people don't want dagga legalised, but the march showed the opposite."

[end]

FOUR people were arrested at the 10th annual Cannabis Walk, which saw thousands march in a call on the government to legalise the use of dagga.

The march began from the corner of Tennant and Keizersgracht streets yesterday, with excited and eager protesters singing and dancing to reggae music. The smell of cannabis filled the streets as marchers made their point. Some carried posters which read "It's very unnatural to make nature illegal".

March leader Johannes Berkhout said he was delighted at the turnout, which he said "makes it clear many are rooting for the legalisation of marijuana".

[continues 225 words]

It Would Help to Relieve Suffering of Many People

Dagga Could Be a Source of Income ... and an Export Crop in Which Sa Has a Competitive Advantage

A UNITED Nations (UN) summit on drugs last week ended with no change to the global 1998 agreement banning use, despite calls from many countries for a new approach.

That is a pity for the global "war on drugs", which has done little to arrest the ills of drug addiction and, if anything, has increased the violence and criminality associated with the drugs trade. It is a pity too for SA, where stalled efforts to decriminalise dagga, especially for medical use, will not be helped by UN intransigence.

[continues 623 words]

A More Nuanced Stand Needed

AS THE last century drew to a close, and the West continued to congratulate itself on reaching the "End of History" and the sunny triumph of liberal democracy, the UN announced a bold ambition: to secure a "drug-free world". With communism having been overcome, the cycle of economic boom and bust seemingly broken, declaring war on an illegal, global trade must have felt to some like the next step towards social nirvana.

Eighteen years later the world feels like a very different place on many counts.

[continues 540 words]

THE stalled Medical Innovation Bill, which seeks legality for dagga as a medical therapeutic adjunct and greater freedom for its recreational use, will need significant surgery if it is to become law.

The bill, tabled by the late Mario Ambrosini in 2014, went through Parliament unopposed, but has been wheel-spinning ever since. It is hopelessly bogged down - primarily over the liberalisation of dagga for commercial and recreational use.

Charles Parry, director of the alcohol, tobacco and other drug research unit at the South African Medical Research Council, says that before medicinal dagga can be made more widely available - for conditions, such as chronic pain, in which the evidence of benefit is strongest - policy makers will need to consider issues such as safe supply and regulation.

[continues 773 words]

THE United Nations is ho sting a special three day session on the global drug problem that ends tomorrow, and cannabis users around the world are hoping their favourite plant will finally be rescheduled as a controlled substance.

Are scheduling would make it easier for researchers to study the plant and for doctors to prescribe it as a medicine. This includes KwaZulu Natal, where the excellent quality of cannabis cultivated in the ideal climate of places such as the Midlands and Zulu land can be given to people who suffer from painful diseases, such as cancer and lupus, or to help the many police officers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

[continues 748 words]

Many at the UN General Assembly this week, not least the Latin American countries, tired of the problems borne of criminalising users, will make the case for harm-reduction programmes, writes Kerry Cullinan.

FOR THE first time in 20 years, the UN has convened a special session on "the world drug problem" amid fierce international debate about whether drug users should primarily be punished or rehabilitated.

The UN General Assembly special session on drugs, which started yesterday and runs until tomorrow, was called after Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala appealed to the body to revise the global approach to illegal drugs.

[continues 830 words]

THE FIGHT to free societies around the world from the burden of illegal drug dealing is a contradiction in terms: a war against the drug dealers, but also a campaign of care for those in the thrall of addiction.

But it's clear that the United Nations and governments around the world have run out of ideas as the international illegal drug trade continues to grow, despite the so-called war on drugs which the global body has championed for at least two decades. And so we commend the UN for convening a special session this week to try to examine what has gone wrong with its grand plans, why and what to do next with what is an ever-ballooning crisis.

[continues 244 words]

Many members of the UN General Assembly are tired of the problems borne of criminalising drug users, and will be making the case instead for harm-reduction programmes, writes Kerry Cullinan

For the first time in 20 years, the UN has convened a special session on "the world drug problem" amid fierce international debate about whether drug users should primarily be punished or rehabilitated.

The UN General Assembly Special Session on drugs, which started yesterday and runs until tomorrow, was called after Mexico, Colombia and Guatemala appealed to the body to revise the global approach to illegal drugs.

[continues 852 words]

But it would take a government with insight and compassion to implement the necessary remedies

Sometimes, as a journalist, the sadness that follows the information you seek is almost unbearable. The story in question was to get to the root of Cape gangs. And there was time: two years. That's a long while to research a single topic - a chance you seldom get.

With that sort of time you inevitably go beneath the skin of daily journalism and the epidermis of weeklies to muscle and bone. Down that deep came a discovery: gangs are merely a symptom of a profoundly disturbing youth problem that's getting worse.

[continues 1235 words]

JARROD Cronje's article ( The Witness, March 31) refers.

I empathise with the writer and wish him a safe journey to recovery. Like most drug abusers, the writer appears to have experienced many challenges, including poor family support, which may have contributed to low self esteem.

There are many reasons why people may try "hard drugs" (tik, whoonga, Ecstacy, crack). Cannabis is a nontoxic plant that jus t happens t o be grouped with these "hard drugs". If cannabis was a gateway drug, then all our rehab centres would be full of Rastafarians, but that isn't the case. It's a bit like saying that everyone who rides a bicycle as a child will grow up to ride a motorbike. The argument isn't logical.

[continues 90 words]