National Cannabis Dialogue Image: Brett Hilton-Barber
Delegates to the National Cannabis Dialogue have told government that the continuing criminalisation of cannabis has exacerbated inequalities and diverted tax revenue into the pockets of corrupt cops.
And as long as there is no reguation of the cannabis retgail ‘Grey Zone’ , corrupt SAPS elements will continue exploiting it to extort bribes, thereby abetting corruption and stifling the development of an emerging industry, the Marijuana Board of South Africa (Mbosa)-convened Dialogue heard.
Calls were also made for the removal of cannabis from the Drug and Drug Trafficking Act in order to speed up cannabis reform by among others, Cannabis Development Council of SA (CDCSA) Deputy Chairperson and Rasta United Front President Ras Thau-Thau Haramanuba, Fields of Green for All’s Myrtle Clarke and CDCSA Chairperson Ras Gareth Prince.
Prince criticized police reporting methodologies which categorized cannabis arrests as drug crimes, saying cannabis could not conceivably be classed alongside more harmful and dangerous hard drugs such as cocaine.
Citing SAPS drugs statistics indicating 58 000 arrests in three months, he said South Africa was an anomaly as cannabis arrests tended to decrease post-legislation. “This translates to 700 arrests a day. Where’s the justice in that?” Prince asked. He was drawing attention to the fact that most SAPS drug arrests are cannabis-related.
“The link between dagga and crime has not been established in 130 years, it has been assumed,” Prince countered. He said cannabis had a socio-economic role to play in South Africa in line with government’s developmental state agenda. Addressing the government representatives from the Justice Ministry and police directly, he said cannabis “is one of the concrete ways of lifting our people out of poverty.”
“There’s a reason equality is the first word in the constitution,” Prince said. He drew a parallel between current cannabis injustices and “the evils” of the apartheid state and suggested the August 2023 SAPS-issued national directive for a cannabis arrests moratorium be made an order of court. “We’re not the threat that people want to make us to be,” argued Prince.
Fields of Green for All’s (FGFA) Myrtle Clarke said that in the cannabis space, the real concerns around cohesive policy, reducing harms and preventing crime had become secondary to paying bribes.
“We now have shops that are paying R10 000 a week to police,” she said, adding: “Police are taking money that should go to SARS.”
She suggested changing SAPS Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to remove arrest quotas she blamed for inflating cannabis arrests. “They’re not dagga arrests. They are dagga heists because people are bribing police.”
And as long as cannabis remained under the Drug and Drug Trafficking Act, stigma and profiling would continue said Clarke. The activist, who describes herself as one half of of the Dagga Couple, criticized SAPS over the stalled investigation into the murder of her partner Jules Stobbs. She echoed Prince’s assertion that cannabis rather than violent crime tended to be over-policed.
“The solution is to change the system from the top,” said Clarke, whose organisation spearheads the Cannabis Police Reform Programme.
Police reported that there are disciplinary mechanisms to which all active SAPS members are subjected. They also said anti-crime operations followed current laws and regulations. The Justice department is set to announce revised cannabis regulations ‘soon’..
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