Image courtesy Stefano Bernardo, Unsplash
The Windhoek High Court on Thursday morning, 9 July 2026, dismissed the Ganja Users of Namibia’s (GUN’s) application to have cannabis decriminalised in Namibia. This has handed the state a short-term victory in a long-running legal saga that started almost exactly a year ago.
Shortly after the ruling by Judge Claudia Claasen, GUN released a statement that the case had been lost and that “the green fight continues”. GUN said it would post an update on the merits of the court’s decision.
All eyes had been on the court to announce its ruling on 7 July 2026 after closing arguments were heard on 22 May 2026. However, the court was not satisfied with the heads of argument and deferred its ruling until 9 July 2026, in order to familiarise itself more closely with the facts, GUN President Brian Jaftha told Cannabiz Africa.
The ruling means the court has sided with government’s arguments that Namibia was not yet ready to lift the colonial-era anti-cannabis ban, as enshrined in the Abuse of Dependence-Producing Substances and Rehabilitation Centres Act 41 of 1971 (RSA) Act.
This statute came into force in Namibia’s days as a colony of South Africa and has mainly affected Rastafarians by limiting everyday practice and spirituality freedoms. Rastafarians everywhere take cannabis, or the plant, as the medium consecrating their faith.
In its heads of argument, the state among others argued it would need to set up support structures to contain any envisaged fallout arising from decriminalising cannabis, including legal and mental health support systems.
It had argued in a special plea that Namibia’s Law Reform and Development Commission(LRDC) was already adjudicating whether Namibia should go ahead and decriminalise cannabis in the southern African country and that GUN’s case was therefore premature.
But GUN countered the state’s contention that the matter was a civil issue and not a judicial one, outlining the various constitutional imperatives at stake, including the cannabis bans being at variance with Section 80 of the Namibian constitution.
GUN president Brian Jafhta, who was released from prison last year after serving 22 months for cannabis possession, said the state had an ‘unripe doctrine’ which meant that policy decisions were continuously delayed.
He told Cannabiz Africa that said it was not in the interests of justice that Rastafarians and other cannabis users continued to be arrested while government was making up its mind.
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