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.
Moroccan firm Cannaflex has launched a new cannabis-based medicine and the first prescription of the product was to a South African patient last week. This was done through local compliance partners, Gauteng-based DRA Pharmaceuticals, and signals Morocco’s entry into the international medical cannabis market.
Labat Africa has called it quits on the cannabis front and has sold Cannafrica and all its cannabis assets for R23 million to 64P Investments. After years of burning cash in trying to turn its first mover advantage into an empire, the JSE listed group announced yesterday that the sale was a done deal and that its future lay in the AI, data and tech investment sector.
Although South Africa lags far behind Canada, which exported 62 000 kg to Australia in 2024, it has increased its market share relative to the competition. In 2024 South Africa exported 4 992 kg to Australia, significantly up on the previous year’s 1 861 kg. South Africa’s first exports to Australia in 2021 were a mere 60 kg by comparison.
THC is the cannabis compound that frightens everyone because of its mind-altering capacity. But because the plant is a molecular ecosystem, it makes no sense to criminalize just one part of it. Regular columnist Charl Botha and Gavin Tonks argue that policymakers should reframe their whole approach and recognize cannabis as a mult-compound bio-resource, not a single molecule narcotic.
A University of Pretoria health expert warns that a mental health crisis is looming among young South Africans amid alarming increases in both vaping and cannabis use. Known as co-use, the trend is being fuelled by poor regulation, loopholes in the law and insufficient attention to youth mental health and well-being.
A West Rand property owner had lost his legal fight to prevent his house being confiscated by the state because it was a site of cannabis dealing between 2022 and 2023. The South Gauteng High Court has granted the NPDD a preservation order to seize the property after a long-running legal battle.
Labat came out of the naughty corner to be the darling of the JSE this week with news that its earnings per share have rocketed by 378%. The news provoked a buying frenzy on the JSE on 16 October 2025 which led to Labat’s share price doubling in a matter of hours.
Brenda Marx says only a handful of ‘grey zone’ operators are regularly testing the products they stock and there are potential consumer harms associated with this. Qure’s veteran Laboratory Director says some form of quality and safety framework is long overdue but the million dollar question is who should actually regulate this.
Project Indlela, the cannabis unity initiative, has evolved beyond private club representation into a broader movement for cannabis stakeholders seeking a path to legality. To this end Cannabiz Africa will be hosting a Path to Legality Round Table webinar on 11 November 2025 that aims to bring together to co-create a lawful, inclusive cannabis framework.
One of South Africa’s leading researchers in cannabis science and policy, the CSIR and TUT academic, David Katurere, has called for the urgent establishment of the central cannabis authority envisaged by the DTIC to halt the regulatory morass South African cannabis is sliding into.
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