THE late IFP MP Mario Ambrosini's private member's bill calling for the legalisation of dagga has been revived by Parliament, following his death last month.

Ambrosini decided to end his life after battling stage-four lung cancer for more than a year, his family said soon after his death.

Picking up where Ambrosini left off, the ANC moved a motion in the National Assembly yesterday to note the Medical Innovation Bill, which calls for the legalisation of dagga for medicinal purposes.

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THE DAYS when politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of cannabis prohibition is to subsidise violent drug cartels, prohibition is a success.

The drug war distorts supply and demand so that big money grows on little trees.

If the goal is deterrence, cannabis prohibition is a clear failure. Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current record-holder in citizens incarcerated.

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THE WAR on drugs has been a losing fight for 40 years. The response to unending failure has always been to demand more law enforcement and more prison cells. It is unclear why the mood should be changing just now. It isn't that consumers have suddenly got too numerous to ignore: rates of cannabis use, which had, throughout the late 20th century, seemed to be on an interminable upward trajectory, are now stable or even declining.

But then the long century of criminalisation never had any more to do with evidence than America's disastrous interwar experiment with prohibiting the undoubtedly-dangerous demon drink. Then, as now, the practicalities of harm-reduction and the principle of not persecuting citizens who harm no one but themselves, point to legalisation.

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PRO medical dagga activist Sheldon Cramer (aka Bobby Hashgreen) from Richards Bay is calling for a review of the laws prohibiting the use of dagga.

This comes after Cramer was arrested for smoking dagga in public during the Global Cannabis March in Durban last month.

He was charged with possession of dagga and appeared at the Durban Magistrate's Court last week.

During his arrest, Cramer commented that if it was not for people standing up for what they believe in, South Africa would still be in the apartheid era.

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IN A bid to clamp down on criminal activities in schools, a joint operation between the SAPS, Neighbourhood Safety Watch, K9 Unit and metro police was carried out at a Mitchells Plain High School last week.

The school was raided on Friday after the principal requested help from authorities.

A number of dangerous weapons including knives and a sword were seized while dagga, cigarettes and liquor where also found in pupils' possession.

"More and more school principals are requesting our assistance in carrying out searches at schools to ensure the safety of students.

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AS THE disinformational efforts to legalise marijuana for recreational usage light up ("Scientists support legalising marijuana", Cape Argus, June 6) one can expect sound logic and common sense to be the first casualties of the pro-pot war.

A case in point is the quote in Friday's article by JP van Niekerk of the SA Medical Journal, who claims: "There is good evidence that decriminalisation of the use of drugs reduces the harm of drugs=C2=85 generates revenue for the government. A good case can be made for its legalisation." Next, I expect Van Niekerk to break out in a rendition of Timothy Leary's old motto - "turn on, tune in, and drop out".

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It will generate income and reduce drug ills, say boffins

MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini's impassioned plea in Parliament to have dagga legalised for medical use has received support from scientists, with one Cape Town researcher suggesting decriminalising it could reduce drug ills and generate income for the government.

JP van Niekerk, consulting editor of the SA Medical Journal, wrote in this month's issue that dagga was much less harmful than two legalised drugs: alcohol and tobacco.

He described Oriani-Ambrosini's plea as a wake-up call, but said it was probably wiser to go beyond legalising marijuana for medical purposes.

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CAPE TOWN - Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) politician Mario OrianiAmbrosini has credited the use of alternative treatments, including the administration of cannabis oils as a suppository, for clearing his lung cancer.

"The cannabis has cleared the lung cancer. It is gone. But the cancer in mesothelioma (cancer of the pleura) is still there," he said yesterday, after being sworn in as an MP.

Mr Oriani-Ambrosini has become a standard-bearer for cancer treatment since he made an impassioned plea in the National Assembly two months ago for regulation of what are regarded as alternative methods to combat the disease.

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MAYBE the man who was busted with R1-million worth of dagga wanted to use it for medical reasons.

The 48-year-old from Hamburg, Roodepoort, in the West Rand, transformed his garage into a greenhouse (a glass building where plants are protected from the cold) fully-equipped with lights, electric fans and and all other necessary objects to grow his stash.

"JMPD officers responded to a tip-off, and discovered the dagga which had a street value of approximately R1-million," Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Wayne Minnaar said.

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I'VE never taken any leisure drugs. I never will - well, maybe to end some unbearable terminal disease, but otherwise, no. But there are many people who do take drugs for pleasure, and there always will be. I don't support the use of drugs, but the current laws and their enforcement haven't fixed the problem, in fact, they may have made things worse.

The war on drugs has actually been a failure many ways with many unintended consequences and lots of collateral damage.

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Cancer-stricken IFP MP Mario Ambrosini's heartfelt plea for the decriminalisation of cannabis for medicinal purposes comes at a time when use of the drug is increasing becoming acceptable worldwide. While cannabis remains illegal in most countries, the US states of Colorado and Washington have recently legalised use and possession.

In December Uruguay became the first country to legalise the sale, cultivation and distribution of cannabis. Medicinal use is allowed in 20 US states and a number of countries, including France, Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain and the Czech Republic.

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IN AN EMOTIONAL plea for a change to the law, IFP MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini yesterday admitted he was using dagga as part of his fight against the terminal cancer he was diagnosed with almost a year ago.

"I was supposed to die many months ago. I am here because I had the courage of seeking alternatives in Italy in the form of bicarbonate of soda and here in South Africa in the form of cannabis, marijuana, dagga," Oriani-Ambrosini said, adding: "It is a crime against humanity not to allow this."

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DAGGA Party president Jeremy Acton has rallied to the defence of a man sent to prison this week for the possession of dagga in Coffee Bay, saying imprisonment was a transgression of his cultural rights as a Rastafarian.

Gustav Nowers, 28, who recently arrived from Cape Town with his partner Odette Oberholzer, pictured, to teach on the Wild Coast, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for possession of 0.68g of dagga in the Kwaaiman Magistrate's Court in Mqanduli on Tuesday.

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TEENAGERS who regularly smoke cannabis suffer long-lasting brain damage and are in much greater danger of developing schizophrenia.

US researchers who conducted a study say the drug is particularly dangerous for a group of people who have a genetic susceptibility to the mental health disorder - and it could be the trigger for it.

Asaf Keller, of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, says the results highlight the dangers of teenagers smoking cannabis during their formative years.

The study exposed young mice to the active ingredient in marijuana for 20 days. It found that their brain activity was impaired, with the damage continuing into adulthood.

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WEED, dope, marijuana, cannabis they're words that strike fear into the hearts of policymakers. Except in Uruguay, where last Wednesday the House of Representatives passed a bill to legalise marijuana.

The bill is expected to be approved by the Senate and signed by President Jose Mujica as the initiative to legalise the drug was not driven by activist groups, but by the president himself.

Once approved, Uruguay will become the first country in the world to legalise the growing, selling and recreational use of marijuana. The world is watching to see what the impact of recreational drug use will be, but in the background the liberalisation may pave the way for a shift in global industries.

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NEEDLE exchange for drug addicts. Shooting galleries. Drug substitution therapy.

These are just some of the practices associated with the internationally controversial "harm reduction" philosophy, which has NGOs working with drug addicts angered over the possible damage implementing such a strategy could have on increasing drug dependency in the country.

The National Drug Master Plan 2013-2017 was approved by the cabinet on June 26 this year, to be implemented with immediate effect by the Central Drug Authority (CDA).

And harm reduction as well as supply-and-demand reduction is one of the strategies that will be applied.

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CONGRATULATIONS on an articulately written article, "Dagga: What's the fuss about?" (July 7), but a few things need to be pointed out.

First, the article fails to raise any issues related to cannabis usage other than that a few who use it might some day move on to other substances.

This can be likened to saying that someone who drinks coffee or, dare I say, alcohol, will later start using other drugs. This is ridiculous.

As for prohibition, it is a violation of basic human rights and just does not work. Thousands of taxpayers' money and a vast amount of police resources are pumped into the massive dagga prohibition engine while rape, murder and other actual crimes fall by the wayside.

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IT MAY be illegal in Durban, but in California patients are puffing up a storm with Durban Poison courtesy of a doctor's prescription.

Durban Poison a Durban strain of cannabis is, according to a Californian company, Craft Research Alliance for Therapeutics (Craft), becoming the cannabis of choice for patients.

Craft provides medical cannabis, which is certified as Clean Green, meaning it is grown organically, and free from pesticides. California decriminalised the use of dagga in January 2011.

Californians with cancer, Aids and other chronic illnesses, can grow or obtain marijuana for medical purposes when recommended by a doctor.

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The impoverished community of Westbury will petition President Jacob Zuma to broaden the reach of the government's multi-sectoral anti-narcotics and drugs cleanup campaign, which began in Eldorado Park, to the West Rand.

Since Zuma's presidential visit to Eldo's on May 14, 133 drug related arrests have been made and 23 "lolly lounges", where young girls are prostituted to drug addicts, have been shut down.

The Westbury community wants similar action in its neighbourhood.

Community Care Foundation director Mike Fetane yesterday said: "We have lists of drug dealers that we submitted to the police and nothing has happened. We have not seen any arrests. Everything that is happening in Eldo's is also happening here.

Government's programme against drugs should spread. We want Zuma to intervene."

A public meeting will be held at the Westbury Community Hall on Sunday and a petition will be signed and submitted to the Office of the Presidency.

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IN THE "war on drugs", drugs seem to be winning. As the approach to global drug policy is characterised by prohibition, to many it seems obvious that the only way forward is to substitute it with policies sometimes referred to as "legalisation" combined with "public health".

If legalisation was a "magic bullet", it would have been used years ago. A more nuanced and evidence-based approach is required. This has now been provided by the Organisation for American States in a study that explores a range of drug policy options for the hemisphere.

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