Cannabis was removed from the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 by way of the Cannabis Act which was signed off by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 28 May 2024. However, because the regulations for the Cannabis Act have not yet been put out for public consultation and gazetted, the Act remains inoperational and the Drugs Act is hanging in there on the statute books.
There is anecdotal evidence that law enforcement authorities are holding back on using the Drugs Act for cannabis related offences and using the Medicines Act instead, but there is no corroborative data.
Last week, however KwaZulu law enforcement officials charged a man under the Act after he was arrested during a police operation on a cannabis storage facility on the Bluff, Durban. The unnamed man was charged under Section 5(b) of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, and possession of a Schedule 7 substance in terms of the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 101 of 1965.
The arrest and seizure of cannabis and related products also appears to counter the SAPS directive of August 2023 calling for circumspection in cannabis arrests, particularly around ‘stock’ seized.
Nonetheless, the man, who is reportedly in custody at SAPS Brighton Beach, will face charges for the product netted by police, as this would typically be found in any one of the thousands of cannabis retail ‘Grey Zone’ operations that have sprung up in metros across the country in the past three years.
A statement from Arrive Alive says that a joint operation was conducted by the Durban Metro Police Service Drug Team and SAPS EThekwini Municipality Infrastructure Task Team on the Bluff facility on 14 July 2025 and confiscated R753 150 worth of illegal drugs.
It details the following having being confiscated by SAPS during the raid:
- 892 pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes
- 45 cannabis syringes (pictured above)
- 26 magic mushrooms (psilocybin)
- 212 containers of hashish
- 115 containers of cannabis dabs
- 2 blocks of hashish weighing 207g
- 197 bottles of cannabis oil
- 4kg cannabis dust
- 3.5kg packaged cannabis dust
- 1.8kg, 2.6kg, and 1.2kg of loose dagga
- 2 inventory sales books
- 1 electronic scale
The National Prosecuting Authority has repeatedly said that new regulations covering cannabis arrests will be issued ‘soon’. However, in the absence of these regulations, cannabis arrests appear to be taking place on an ad-hoc basis, with KZN as a geographical area being targeted the most, while Rasta communities around the country remain subject to victimization.
Although the presence of psilocybin, which is completely illegal, has clouded the Bluff case, the issue highlights the fact that a national level, there are no cannabis arrest guidelines since the SAPS
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