Leading South African cannabis activist, Ras Gareth Prince, says 'whites and Indians' are the main beneficiaries of the cannabis ‘grey zone’ retail boom while police continue their persecution of indigenous communities. He has accused Government of deepening South Africa’s racial divide by its lack of regulation around the cannabis industry.
The Cannabis Development Council of SA chair Ras Gareth Prince has slammed the Government for its reckless approach to cannabis reform and accused it of perpetuating racism within the industry.
In an interview with eNCA on 30 January 2025, Prince (the ‘Prince’ from the ‘Prince Judgement’ which led to the legalization of the private consumption of cannabis), made his feelings clear:
Key take-away points from the interview:
· The main problem with the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act was that it allowed for adult consumption but did not allow for any legal source of cannabis, a situation he described as ‘absurd’;
· Cannabis reform to date has increasingly marginalized previously disadvantaged communities at the expense of the economically advantaged;
· Medigrow’s Eastern Cape industrial hemp initiative perpetuates ‘apartheid cannabis thinking’;
· Ongoing police action against indigenous cannabis communities is racist and illegal;
· Police inaction against ‘grey zone’ retailers exposes racist flaws in South Africa, in which ‘whites and Indians’ are the main beneficiaries;;
· Government has pushed medical and industrial cannabis development instead of legalizing ‘dagga’ which would benefit black traders and businesses;
· Government was making no attempt to protect local landraces and was building up an import-dependency in the cannabis industry that came with high barriers to entry;
· Government was “reckless” in allowing the importation of hemp seeds without assessing the environmental impact on landraces.
The eNCA interview didn’t exactly kick off the way presenter Ulveka Ramgappa anticipated as she introduced the programme with the positive news of Medigrow distributing hemp seeds to Eastern Cape farmers as the first step to developing a new Eastern Cape economy.
Instead she received Prince’s rather cold retort: “We are very unhappy about the status of cannabis in South Africa. We have read and heard about the developments in the Eastern Cape and it does not carry the approval of the cannabis industry”.
Medical and Industrial Cannabis Focus Locks Locals Out
He said: “To advance medical cannabis and hemp does not address the cannabis situation in South Africa because ordinary people are economically excluded”.
He said that the Medigrow initiative was a “continuation of apartheid cannabis mentality”.
He said current cannabis reform appeared to be designed to reward the rich at the expense of indigenous communities who had a long tradition of cannabis culture. He said local knowledge and landraces were being overlooked because importing raw materials was built into the system
“Previously disadvantaged communities are excluded from obtaining cannabis licenses and growing hemp because in reality you have to import these seeds and those costs are prohibitive.
“They are forcing us to import seeds for medical cannabis and forcing us to import seeds for hemp. The sad thing is that no environmental impact assessment has been done in order to ascertain what is the impact on local cannabis strains and that is not advancement that is recklessness”.
Prince said Government was focusing on medical cannabis and hemp, “but there are absolutely no plans for dagga as we know the plant.” Prince said rapid rise of the cannabis retail ‘grey zone’ had further marginalized indigenous cannabis communities.
Grey Zone Favours Whites and Indians
“All these cannabis shops that have sprung up are actually illegal. There is no regulatory framework in South Africa for the selling of cannabis and that has been our main complaint about the new Cannabis for Private Purposes Act.”
He said that six years after the Constitutional Court had ordered “Government to develop a regulatory framework for dagga we still do not have one”.
A slightly surprised Ramgappa then asked Prince the obvious question: “If these shops are illegal how are come they are trading in our malls and towns?”
It’s the hypocrisy of democracy” answered Prince, allowing the words to settle in a moment before continuing: “The fact is that the police are turning a blind eye to these shops that are owned by whites and Indians who were previously advantaged communities. They are not owned by indigenous communities. There is no regulatory framework which is an absurd situation in this country. The new Cannabis Act does not provide for any legal source of cannabis and that is our problem at the end of the day.”
Prince said that the full legalization of adult-use consumption would open up the economic benefits of cannabis for local communities, “but Government is not tuning into that . They are not allowing people like myself and my community and others to enjoy the benefits of legalized cannabis”.
The Police Are So Part of the Problem
“So what’s stopping you and other indigenous community people from starting your own shops” asked Ramgappa.
“The police” said Prince. “The police harass and arrest people in our community to prevent them from doing that. On a daily basis we are facing unfair discrimination on the part of the police. The govt is not opening up or providing any assistance for those who want to economically advantage themselves through cannabis because our conduct is still seen as criminal and this is unconstitutional.
“Concourt legalized the constitutional right to use, possess and grow, however we are not experiencing a regime of legality within the country because the police are abusing the discretion they have under the law when it comes to cannabis-related offences.They are not giving us the space.
“It also costs money to open up a store? Our people are economically disadvantaged from opening up shops in malls or in towns because rentals and these things are expensive. So the people who are meant to enjoy the benefits, the people who suffered from their association with the plant, are not in a position to do so”.
So what needs to happen?
“What needs to happen is that the criminalized communities, those people known as drug dealers, they are the ones that need to be legalized because in our country it is no longer lawful to view cannabis as simply a drug. It not a criminal act but a cultural act to use cannabis and we need to change the narrative away from recreational drug use towards economical empowerment in the same way that people are using spazas and shebeens. We have spazas and shebeens in every part of this country and yet we are afraid of opening them up to cannabis” said Prince.
“The ordinary people need to be empowered and we can do this with the cannabis already growing in South Africa for the past 1 000 years. We want to build a cannabis economy using local landrace strains. Let us use what we have to get what we want which is economic empowerment for our people.
“We are able to develop amongst the strongest medicines in the world. We are able to develop very strong bricks and fibre that can provide peoples clothing needs, housing needs, medicinal needs from local landrace cannabis, the cannabis that our ancestors know and that have adapted to our environment but no, the Government is not allowing that.”