The DTIC is looking for a project manager for the National Cannabis Master Plan, which has not seen the light of day since it was handed over to the Department last year.

DTIC Minister Parks Tau was given responsibility for resuscitating the Plan by President Cyril Ramaphosa in August last year, but since then, cannabis reform in South Africa has gone backwards.

Cannabiz Africa understands Tau is taking cannabis reform seriously, as his new DG Simphiwe Hamilton who has assembled a cannabis team under a new section in the Department, Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS).  They will be picking up from where cannabis consultant Garth Strachan left off when his contract ends in a few months time.

The new project manager will have his or her work cut out for her as South Africa’s cannabis reform programme is fragmenting rather than going forward. The President’s vision of cannabis as an economic driver, creating jobs and uplifting the rural poor, is in danger of falling apart because his Government is basically dysfunctional.  Since Ramaphosa’s 6 February SONA in which he said South Africa wanted to take the lead in the commercialization of hemp and cannabis, his administration seems unable, or unwilling to provide any leadership at all in the face of the following unfolding crises in the industry:

• The unregulated and explosive growth of the ‘grey zone’, where more illegal cannabis shops are opening up around the country on a weekly basis, servicing an unprecedented level of consumer demand;

• The fiasco that the hemp sector has deteriorated into, with the latest inexplicable ban by the Health Minister on cannabis foodstuffs, and the stirrings of rural resistance in Mpondoland by legacy farmers resisting the importation of hemp seeds into the area;

• The continued harassment of vulnerable groups such as legacy farmers and the Rastafarian communities, where arrests and extortion happen on a daily basis;

• The persecution of ‘legitimate’ cannabis businesses attempting to comply with best practice in the absence of regulations; there is increasing anecdotal evidence of widespread extortion and bribery of SAPS officers as the ‘grey zone’ develops into a multi-billion rand industry;

• The lack of any guidelines from the NPA or SAPS governing the cannabis industry thereby enabling the potential for bribery and corruption;

• The ongoing regulatory vacuum whereby the Cannabis Act is still on the showroom floor awaiting guidelines from the Justice Department, while the Drugs Act, which was meant to be traded in ages ago, is still on the statute books, despite a promise from Government two years ago that it would be scrapped;

• The never-ending dysfunctional relationship between Government departments: the Presidency’s control has slipped, the DTIC and Health are pulling in opposite directions, Health and Agriculture are involved in a turf war over hemp; the Justice Department is still essentially prohibitionist by nature; Social Welfare is being left out in the cold; while the provinces have their own complications – for instance the Eastern Cape Agriculture Department and its subsidiary  responsible for cannabis development – the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency have made a mess of the start of Medigrow’s billion rand industrial cannabis project;

• There is a spiralling substance abuse crisis affecting working class youth as international narcotics syndicates establish secondary markets not only in the major metros, but also in the likes of Saldana, Hawston, Nelspruit and Polokwane, which are on the ‘smuggling corridors’; cannabis is being used in a dangerous mix of new cocktails and it is unclear where the Drug Action Plan fits into the Cannabis Master Plan, or how cannabis is to be ‘delinked’ as a drug from heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and other hard narcotics.

• SAHPRA-licensed cannabis cultivators are struggling to develop an international foothold because of quality and standards issues; there are hundreds of millions of rands of tied up capital in unrealized assets and there is no legal alternative for exporters to destroy what they cannot export.

• Finality on the status of private clubs which in law are currently neither legal nor illegal!

  
  

At the end of the day, the one crucial element that is holding the entire industry back is the lack of a commercial framework for the domestic cannabis market. This should be the new project manager’s Number One priority.

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