South Africa occupies a unique position in the rapidly developing legal cannabis market. With a government that seeks to legalize and develop the cannabis and hemp sectors as a sunshine industry and a private and community sector desperately willing to engage, this should be a match made in heaven. Yet the country finds itself in a regulatory quagmire with market forces, both legal and illegal, now in control. Cannabiz Africa is your front row on the torturous journey towards a regulated adult-use commercial market.
The Cannabis Expo is a crazy, visual experience that takes one to the heart of South African policy schizophrenia, albeit in a fun-filled fantasy way. This weekend the Sandton Convention Centre hosted a no-holds barred, unashamed celebration of cannabis with record attendances.
The DTIC’s senior cannabis advisor has warned that the Government’s attempts to regulate the cannabis industry could suffer a severe setback from Gareth Prince’s court challenge. John Jeffery publicly urged Prince to talk to him ahead of next week’s court hearing.
Small-scale hemp farmers are set to benefit in a bold scheme launched by BSomebodySA which aims to connect food growers to buyers in a supplier development initiative with Freshmark. The initiative is significant in that it integrates cannabis growers into the mainstream agricultural economy.
The Cannabis Expo is a showcase for innovation, and innovation offers a bridge for Mpondoland’s legacy growers to participate in the cannabis economy. That’s the view of Eastern Cape cannabis mentor Dr Ncebakazi Galada, who hopes harness support for Mpondoland farmers at this weekend’s Cannabis Expo.
It’s now two years since the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act was signed off by the President and it is nowhere near coming into law. That’s because the Act stands in stark contradiction to the government’s plans to create a cannabis economy, and one wonders whether it has a place in law at all.
Government’s response to the country’s growing substance abuse crisis has been revealed in Parliament as a shambles. The Department of Social Development has been fingered as the main culprit in the collapse of the Central Drug Authority and the disappearance into the ether of the alleged National Drug Master Plan.
Limpopo-based Biocann, one of South Africa’s largest commercial indoor cannabis facilities has built up a solid medical cannabis business based on Canadian genetics. Biocann says this was a deliberate choice because of the digital tracebility ahead of its impending EU GMP inspection.
Around 25 000 people are expected to converge on the Sandton Convention Centre next weekend for The Cannabis Expo, Africa’s showcase cannabis exhibition. The three-day festival, presented by private club Budbox, will also feature the SA Vape Expo for the first time.
South Africa is well-positioned to build cannabis tourism into its existing tourism eco-system. That’s the view of Sean Hocking, the Jakarta-based organizer of the ICS 2026, who says Cape Town has been chosen as this year’s location because it scenic beauty and its growing reputation as the capital city of cannabis in Africa.
Karoo Bioscience’s VanRhynsdorp facility looks like a space ship that has just landed in the Klein Karoo. The company, which has pumped R400 million into the facility and is the area’s biggest single employer, has been hailed by the Presidency as a medical cannabis success story.
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