‘SAPS Involvement in Hemp Permits is Administrative Over-Reach and Should be Rescinded’
SAPS has no mandate to be an agricultural inspector and its involvement in the hemp permit process is unconstitutional, impractical and unnecessary. That’s the view of H3 Solutions’ Charl Botha who says this provision should be urgently withdrawn.
DTIC Seeks to Raise US$55 m to Create Eastern Cape Hemp Economy
The DTIC is looking to facilitate international funding for a hemp textile engineering company and two other major infrastructure projects in the Eastern Cape to kickstart the province’s cannabis economy. It’s seeking a total of US$55 million in foreign investment which it says will generate over a billion in value and create 12 000 jobs.
SA Cannabis Reform: A Case of Misteps, Missed Steps, Reversed Steps, Ambivalence and Confusion
South African cannabis reform is just not kicking into gear, largely because Government has fumbled the process badly. Nowhere is this more evident than the continued shelf-life of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, which is still on the statute books despite repeated Government promises to amend it and a 2020 Concourt judgement that found sections of it to be unconstitutional.
New Partnership Sees Mainstream Agriculture Joining Drive to Protect and Promote Cannabis Landraces
The African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) has joined forces with the African Heritage Cultural Trust, SACHIDA and other organizations to protect and promote local landrace genetics. This comes as new regulations define indigenous plants as agricultural crops so that small holder farmers can benefit from their economic development.
Hemp Now Officially an Agricultural Crop, So Why is SAPS Still Involved in Permit Process?
The requirement that SAPS be part of the hemp permit approval process is constitutionally unsound and should not be part of the amended Plant Improvement Act. The Act defines cannabis for non-medical purposes as an agricultural crop under the control of the Department of Agriculture. So why, then is SAPS still involved?
SACHIDA: New Hemp Regulations are Great, But Grassroots Challenges Still Have to be Addressed
Raising of THC limits in hemp to 2% will make exports more difficult but will spur the development of the local market. This is the view of SACHIDA founding member Cian McLelland, who provides the lowdown on the positives and negatives facing SA industrial cannabis now the new regulations are in place.
The Health and Wellness Consumer Revolution is Dismantling Cannabis Stigma in South Africa
Cannabis is mainstreaming itself through the growing consumer health and wellness market. More people are turning to nature for solutions to the stress of everyday life and cannabis is one component in a broad consumer movement that is turning to non-pharmaceutical and organic alternatives for mental and physical health.
New Plant Improvement Act Comes into Force, THC Limit in Hemp Now Officially 2%
Wide sweeping reforms to South Africa hemp regulations have come into effect, unblocking some of the major obstacles to getting the sector going. Under the new Plant Improvement Act, cannabis becomes an agricultural crop and the acceptable THC limit in hemp has been raised tenfold to 2%.
Pharma Corporates Appointing Themselves as the Global Gatekeepers of Cannabis, This is Not Good for Farmers
Cannabis reform was meant to be about empowering farmers but instead it’s empowering Pharma. Across the world Big Pharma is rewriting the agricultural handbook. It not only wants a slice of the cannabis action, it wants to own the plant and control access too. Now, the hands that once nurtured the plant are being told they are no longer clean enough to touch it.
Africa Awakening! Now it’s Time to Get Out of Bed if the Continent is to Take Advantage of its Limited Cannabis Opportunities
African policy-makers are the biggest obstacle to cannabis reform on the continent. By focusing on medical cannabis exports and industrial hemp, they are entrenching African cannabis at the low end of the international value chain – and denying Africans the health and wellness benefits of the plant.