The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) has confirmed it is clamping down on unlicensed cannabis sales to the public.

SAHPRA spokesperson Madimetja Mashishi says there is no such thing as a SAHPRA-licensed dispensary and that all cannabis retail outlets should be closed down because they were breaking the law.

She said the regulatory body had already taken “appropriate enforcement actions against operators of such establishments in Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth in collaboration with law enforcement agencies”.

Mashishi says that whoever is openly selling cannabis to the public should face ‘the full might of the law”.

She was responding to a recent story in IOL in which it reported that buying cannabis over the counter had become common in Pietermaritzburg’s city centre and suburban malls. IOL journalist Bongani Hans reported that there were scores of “dagga clubs” operating, many of which claimed to be licensed by SAHPRA.

Mashishi hotly denied this.

“Those people have never been licensed by us and the police must come in to deal with them,”

“SAHPRA only issues licences for the cultivation of cannabis for export purposes to manufacture cannabis-containing products, and for providing cannabis for medicinal and/or research purposes.

“SAHPRA does not issue licences for the sale of cannabis for recreational use, and such practice remains illegal,” she said.

But the sudden emergence of cannabis retail and consumption spots in KwaZulu Natal’s second largest city is news to the police.

KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda told IOL that police were unaware of such outlets.

“If SAHPRA says they are not licensed, why don’t they initiate an operation to close them down?” asked Col Netshiunda.

He said police could not act because they “did not know the whereabouts and the identity of the dealers”.

Mashishi said: “While SAHPRA is continuously enforcing compliance with the laws it is mandated to administer, we urge members of the public to report such illegal practices to SAHPRA via the whistleblowing portal available on the SAHPRA website and to the South African Police Service."

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