African regulatory authorities such as the South African Medicines Control Council should consider applications to approve medicinal cannabis for the treatment of chronic pain.

This is especially needed in the case of patients who are not responding well to conventional medication and where the use of medicinal cannabis may have a positive effect on its own or as an adjunct to existing medications.

But regulatory bodies must be guided by good evidence rather than by anecdotal reports or pressure from recreational users promoting a legalisation agenda.

[continues 634 words]

I HAVE yet to read the texts recommended by Clifford Schaffer in his letter "Drug laws not helping" on March 15, but otherwise I agree wholeheartedly with his views.

Richard Nixon, under immense pressure following the US disaster in Vietnam and the looming Watergate affair, desperately needed a rallying cry to divert the public's attention and a "war on drugs" fitted the bill perfectly.

It also put the blame for the thousands of returning heroin-addicted GIs wholly on the drug itself and not on their horrific wartime experiences.

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In the mountains of Pondoland in the Eastern Cape, 'intsangu' is green gold: the key to the rural poor's economic survival. Why then, despite global progress towards decriminalising cannabis, are police spraying crops with poison from helicopters? Niren Tolsi investigates.

THE mountains meet the Indian Ocean on the Wild Coast. At Ebulawu, south of Port St Johns, green-topped peaks undulate up towards sheer drops into the blue maelstrom below, where waves crash against cliffs of white, grey and red.

[continues 2891 words]

Gang Town, the City Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award-winning book by Don Pinnock, is being released this month and is a comprehensive and relatable look at gangsterism on the Cape Flats. This edited extract looks at how the international 'war on drugs' means a war on our youth that need not be happening.

Gang Town by Don Pinnock Tafelberg 280 pages R225

Cape Town has a youth drug problem that's out of control. It's possible to fix it, but it will need a government with both insight and guts. Drugs largely drive Cape Town's stratospheric levels of interpersonal violent crime. Users rob and steal to get them, gangs murder to retain their sales turf and drug lords hold neighbourhoods in thrall by violence. There is a solution to this, but it would take a brave and resolute government to implement it.

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Owner, SPCA Plan to Lay Charges After 'Traumatic Event', Writes Yolande Stander

A GARDEN Route herbalist who says she is battling to come to terms with the trauma of her dog being shot and killed by police will institute a civil claim following what she says was an extremely traumatic event.

The dog was shot when police raided Sharon Price's home in search of dagga.

While the police claim the 11-year-old pitbull named Izzy was shot in self-defence, Price, of Great Brak River near Mossel Bay, and her family believe otherwise.

[continues 822 words]

THE question of what to do about drugs is not a new one. Over the last 100 years, there have been numerous major government commissions around the world that have studied the drug laws and made recommendations for changes.

You can find the full text of all of them at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer under "Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy".

They all reached remarkably similar conclusions, no matter who did them, or where, when, or why. They all agreed that the current laws were based on ignorance and nonsense, and that the current policy does more harm than good no matter what you assume about the dangers of drugs. You don't have to take my word for that. Read them yourself.

[continues 179 words]

IT IS impossible to know how many people have been deterred from using cannabis out of deference to the law. Decades of prohibition have not prevented the drug from establishing itself as a part of the repertoire of psychoactive substances that British people use for leisure and, for a few, nonrecreational medication. Despite the theoretical threat of prosecution, cannabis use has become sufficiently uncontroversial for stories about David Cameron dabbling in his youth to have surfaced without measurable impact on his standing as prime minister.

[continues 213 words]

Africa Has Become Vital Transit Hub for Narcotics

THE government is to urgently re-establish narcotics and firearm units to fight cocaine and heroin drug cartels using South Africa as a transit hub, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko said yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the second Africa-Russia Anti-Drug Dialogue in Durban, Nhleko said although there was no concrete timeline yet in place for the units to be up and running, the SA Police Service and his ministry were working on having this done as soon as possible.

[continues 279 words]

THE aroma of dagga smoke hung over Parliament yesterday when about 200 Rastafarians protested outside the House's gates.

The colourful march, by Rastafarians from across the Western Cape, started on Keizergracht and wound its way through Cape Town.

The protesters then handed a memorandum of grievances to Parliament.

Rastafari United Front chairman, Thau-Thau Haramanuba, said they were a recognised faith-based nation, yet were prosecuted and persecuted by the law.

He said their children were chased out of schools and they were victimised by police because of their religion.

[continues 173 words]

Preparing for Seminal Court Battle Over Legalising Cannabis Use

SUPPORTERS of a major constitutional challenge should have been tramping across lush green grass in the valley of Witfontein outside Joburg today for Weedstock 2016.

The Bronkhorstspruit far m was set to be transformed into a fundraising festival for the legalisation of cannabis. It would have run until tomorrow, but was cancelled this week under stringent new laws which police all public gatherings.

Weedstock is an initiative of the Fields of Green for All movement, which supports the efforts of two South Africans and their lawyers to challenge certain laws in terms of the constitution, and see the responsible adult use of cannabis legalised.

[continues 458 words]

Supply and Demand: The Rules Can Play Tricks With the Unwary

Having the best product on the market means very little when no one wants it any more.

Heroin, cocaine and ecstasy, to name a few commonly known drugs, have been a menace to governments worldwide. Billions are spent every year on the war on drugs and a greater portion of that is allocated to battling the supply end.

But the problematic issue is really on the demand side, coming from those who buy and consume drugs.

[continues 377 words]

FACT: Medical marijuana is a drug. Fact: Nearly all drug prescriptions are filled at pharmacies but not medical marijuana. Should that change?

The news that one of the country's largest drug stores is quietly looking into teaming up with a medical-grade cannabis grower will feed reflection on what Canada's rules for selling both medical and recreational marijuana should one day look like. There's a good argument to be made for selling a psychoactive substance in a secure environment where people have advanced degrees in such matters.

[continues 211 words]

THE fight to stop police from spraying Eastern Cape dagga plantations with poisonous glysophate stepped up a gear when lawyers representing the affected rural communities demanded proof it complied with environmental legislation.

Port Elizabeth attorney Rick Stone, of Boqwana Burns, yesterday confirmed a second letter had been sent to police asking for proof the herbicide was environmentally compliant.

Police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi yesterday said the product - Round-up - was approved for use in South Africa.

[end]

MORE US adults are using marijuana now that some states have either decided to decriminalise the use of dagga or legalise the possession of it, a review published yesterday in the Journal of Addiction Medicine says.

And data from the US National Survey of Drug Use and Health says marijuana use has increased significantly among US adults in the past decade.

The trend seems to have begun before 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalise marijuana.

Teen use has not increased but researchers warn "young people's perceptions of the risks of using marijuana have decreased, suggesting they might be more likely to start using marijuana in future".

[continues 118 words]

POLICE are going to use helicopters to spray dagga fields in the former Transkei with poisonous chemicals again this year despite widespread opposition.

Eastern Cape police spokeswoman Col Sibongile Soci said yesterday the spraying of Round-up would take place in the remote "hills and valleys" along the Mzintshana River near Port St Johns.

The decision has been slammed by environmental and dagga activists who claim glysophates in the poison "probably cause cancer", according to the World Health Organisation, and they seriously impact flora, fauna and people. They say it has been banned all over the world.

[continues 77 words]

THE Medical Research Council (MRC) has published a policy brief acknowledging there was sufficient evidence that the medicinal use of dagga can relieve chronic pain and reduce spasticity in patients suffering from multiple sclerosis.

The brief summarised the findings of Dr Penny Whiting, an American scientist who conducted a systemic review evaluating the medicinal use of dagga.

The publication this week of the brief, prepared for South Africa by Professor Charles Parry, Nandi Siegfried and Bronwyn Meyers from the MRC, follows the introduction of the Medical Innovation Bill in parliament in February 2014.

[continues 175 words]

A SMALL scientific company says it has a trump card in its quest to develop chewing-gum based on dagga to ease multiple sclerosis symptoms.

Axim Biotechnologies says it will be able to price its gum cheaper than a major competitor after securing a significant discount on dagga made available by the Dutch government, which has a policy of promoting the drug for medicinal use.

But New York-based Axim has a long way to go before its Medchew RX gum will be a viable alternative to an under-the-tongue spray developed by GW Pharmaceuticals in Britain.

[continues 301 words]

THE article "Loads of dagga cleared near Lincoln Meade" (The Witness, December 17) refers. In the article, KZN police commissioner Mmamonnye Ngobeni indicates she would have expected the community to inform officers about a plantation of cannabis in plain sight. It appears that our top brass have fallen out of touch with the needs of communities they have been mandated to serve. Communities are clearly more interested in reducing violent crime.

Cannabis is considered non-toxic because it is physically impossible to consume enough to induce death. Yet a person can easily die of alcohol poisoning. We are hard-wired for cannabis and have receptors for cannabinoids. The body's endo-cannabinoid system provides a modulatory function and is responsible for eating, sleeping, relaxing, digestion and forgetting. Cannabinoids are even found in breast milk because it pacifies babies.

[continues 59 words]

Separate Court Actions Launched to Challenge SA's Ban on Use and Possession of the Weed

Because We've Been Given Our Stay of Prosecution, the High Court Can't Say No

THERE'S no time to space out in a daze for South Africa's leading pro-dagga activists - they have their hands full trying to get it legalised and to block the prosecution of offenders.

Jeremy Acton, leader of the Dagga Party, and "the dagga couple" - Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs, of the NGO Fields of Green for All - say they are contacted every day by people who have been arrested.

[continues 461 words]

IT may seem like a simple spoonful of oil, but for epilepsy sufferer Sakubona Tshwela, 25, hemp seed extract - derived from the cannabis plant, but without psychoactive effects - has been a lifeline.

"I have had epilepsy since 2001," he said. "I have been taking hemp seed oil for three months. I feel much better than before. I had a fit two weeks ago, but that was my first in three months. Before that, I was having a fit almost every day."

[continues 201 words]