Cannabis Legalisation

[GandalfTheGreen]

Can someone please explain the legaslation surrounding cannabis as it stands today and where we're headed in the foreseeable future in relation to the legalisation of weed for recreational use.

[Toby]

Can someone please explain the legaslation surrounding cannabis as it stands today and where we're headed in the foreseeable future in relation to the legalisation of weed for recreational use.

Please introduce yourself

[Daniel-J]

It depends on which country you are interested in or the city.

[Stinger96]

So here is something I stumbled upon..

https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/516152/south-africas-master-plan-for-cannabis-rules-regulations-and-adding-it-to-the-school-curriculum/

[Chris Jay]

Thats an interesting article @Stinger96and thanks for sharing.
 

Quote

stands today and where we're headed in the foreseeable future in relation to the legalisation of weed for recreational use.

Legal limits for personal, legal use at home are set to:

• unlimited for seeds and seedlings
• four flowering plants for those living alone, or eight for homes with two adults or more.
• 600 grams of dried cannabis if you live alone, or 1.2 kilograms in homes with two or more adults.
• In public places, possession is set to 100 grams of cannabis or one flowering plant.

Source

 

The future in these strange days is not easy to predict. I was speaking just last week with a guy heavily involved in the manufacturing of CBD products and there is a current court case with regards to the legalities. It could shutdown our new CBD industry if it goes through!  I am hoping that cannabis stays legal for personal use and consumption and think it will be guaranteed as its clearly established that its for privacy. However, I think the cannabis framework for the market will be filled with corruption and loose ends, just like the R$D cultivation licencees find themselves currently. ANC does have a knack for screwing everything up.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Chris Jay

[Weskush]

At the end of the day it is still up to law enforcement to use their own discretion on deciding if a grow is for personal use or qualify as suspected dealing...most cases end up being thrown out in court after numerous unnecessary procedures.

Boils down to misinformed/uninformed/corrupt officials and/or abuse  of authoritative positions.

[Chris Jay]

Late last night i received this whatsapp from Jeremy Acton, leader of the Dagga Party: " All participants in this spoken submission process who get to speak, please declare NO CONTRACT with the Bill, and DECLARE A VETO on further process of the Bill. Please declare the Bill to be COMPLETELY REJECTED.

The same is going for the Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network, FOGFA, Schindlers, ECDC, and a couple others that are involved.

So I take it that the powers that be are trying to screw us as usual. Thankful for having great people mentioned above looking after our interests while we smoke and grow in peace.

[ORGANinc.]

6 hours ago, Chris Jay said:

Late last night i received this whatsapp from Jeremy Acton, leader of the Dagga Party: " All participants in this spoken submission process who get to speak, please declare NO CONTRACT with the Bill, and DECLARE A VETO on further process of the Bill. Please declare the Bill to be COMPLETELY REJECTED.

The same is going for the Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network, FOGFA, Schindlers, ECDC, and a couple others that are involved.

So I take it that the powers that be are trying to screw us as usual. Thankful for having great people mentioned above looking after our interests while we smoke and grow in peace.

Wednesday gon be lit

[The Grass Baas]

Howzit oaks.

So a couple of days back I was surfing through facebook and up comes a post from the SAPS. Usually I see tons of people getting arrested for growing, possessing, dealing, transporting etc. of the cannabis plant we all love so much. It is depressing, I know, but also gives me an idea of what I have to deal with if something happened blah blah blah. So this was just a regular post (for them) about some "dagga" that they had confiscated and charges and sentencing and extremely scarey stuff. I do understand it is a huuuuuuuge amount but they referred to the Cannabis for Private Purposes bill.

Here's the post.

And here's the bill:

B19_2020_Cannabis_for_Private_Purposes_Bill.pdf

So a few things I understand or might understand:

• You can only have 4 flowering plants per adult in a household, and not more than 8 flowering plants per household.
• 2 vegetating plants count as 1 flowering plant.
• You can get sentenced if you smoke infront of your children or if it bothers neighbours etc.
• Seedlings measurements may not exceed 15cm height and width (above that is considered a vegetative plant).
• 600g per person, up to 1.2kg per household dried product. 
• 1g dried product is 5g wet product.
• In public may carry 100g or 1 plant equivalent.
• And plenty more.

So is this the bill that is in question tomorrow according to the sms you recieved? @Chris Jay

I must be honest, this bill is absolute shit. There are still incriminating factors of the use of cannabis and therefore it is not "decriminalized" as I am sure that is what we are asking for (minimum)? 

I am not at all clued up with law and this stuff so please correct me if something is wrong in the post. I would love to know more.

There are way too many issues with this bill and I agree to scrap it completely. Is this hopefully what happens tomorrow?

It would be impossible to grow perpetually or have any mother plants as they would be taking up the so called flowering quota. This is extremely bad for our local strains, right?

[PsyCLown]

The right people need to be able to profit from it safely and conveniently... Us as the home growers are not the right people as far as the government is concerned.

 

@The Grass Baas The limitation is still a limitation and can be very limiting depending on what exactly you want to achieve with your grows.

As you stated, 8 flower plants = 16 veg plants. This is a combination, so someone keeping say 4 mothers (not a lot of variety, is it?) is then left with 6 flower plants or 12 veg plants... combination of both. This is if there are 2 adults living together, so if you're single and living alone... well fuck, even worse for you. Now you cannot share your harvests with friends and family as much due to the limit imposed.

 

If someone wants to do some proper breeding locally, good luck doing so easily while abiding by these limitations.

The frustrating part is that other substances do not have these limitations, the common ones being alcohol and cigarettes. Why can we not follow the guidelines of cigarettes? I fully understand not smoking infront of children and not giving any tobacco or cannabis to children (unless for proper, approved medical use and then it would typically be in an edible / oil form and they'd not be smoking it).

Currently is there a limit to people brewing their own beers or growing tobacco plants themselves? As far as I am aware, no.

 

The bigger issue is why is there a limit in the first place.

[GGG]

They busy in parliament discussing it now

Sent from my Hisense Infinity H50 using Tapatalk

[PsyCLown]

59 minutes ago, GGG said:

They busy in parliament discussing it now

Sent from my Hisense Infinity H50 using Tapatalk
 

Buy them some Nandos so we can get our way!  

We're not unreasonable. We just don't want such restrictions. We're not trying to harm anybody.

[GGG]

Totally agree , should actually be no laws according to a friend

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[Chris Jay]

2 hours ago, The Grass Baas said:

• You can only have 4 flowering plants per adult in a household, and not more than 8 flowering plants per household.
• 2 vegetating plants count as 1 flowering plant.

I believe this to be BS to, there is no legal limit of plants/ or recommended amount of plants. Its just a guideline for now.

2 hours ago, The Grass Baas said:

So is this the bill that is in question tomorrow according to the sms you recieved? @Chris Jay

That is correct. I actually have Jermeys speech for today, if I could only find an easy way to upload. One part I will quiote:" 9. That is like asking the real criminals to become judges or to act as wolves might do to decide for the rights of sheep.". Love it.

[Chris Jay]

3 hours ago, The Grass Baas said:

There are still incriminating factors of the use of cannabis and therefore it is not "decriminalized" as I am sure that is what we are asking for (minimum)? 

Yes although the original law was found to be imposing on our privacy and rights, limiting the amount of plants to 8 flowering plants is a further invasion of our privacy and like you say other "criminating" factors.  But like Jeremy said yesterday, 8 plants is just a guideline, its not law and there is no limitation on the amount of plants you want to grow.

[PsyCLown]

48 minutes ago, Chris Jay said:

Yes although the original law was found to be imposing on our privacy and rights, limiting the amount of plants to 8 flowering plants is a further invasion of our privacy and like you say other "criminating" factors.  But like Jeremy said yesterday, 8 plants is just a guideline, its not law and there is no limitation on the amount of plants you want to grow.

Guidelines for now, ultimately a judge would be the one to decide if it ends up in court.

If you are within the guidelines, chances are it would just be thrown out (I'd imagine, could be wrong).

 

Realistically, not everyone has space to grow or the knowledge. There should not be anything wrong with you growing as you're able to and have the space to do so, then being able to share with friends and family and enjoy some yourself.

Imagine your gran trying to grow some cannabis for herself, not something every granny is going to be able to do. 

[ORGANinc.]

13 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

Guidelines for now, ultimately a judge would be the one to decide if it ends up in court.

If you are within the guidelines, chances are it would just be thrown out (I'd imagine, could be wrong).

 

Realistically, not everyone has space to grow or the knowledge. There should not be anything wrong with you growing as you're able to and have the space to do so, then being able to share with friends and family and enjoy some yourself.

Imagine your gran trying to grow some cannabis for herself, not something every granny is going to be able to do. 

The Portfolio committee on Justice and correctional services held few public comments for some of the most important stakeholders in the country yesterday and it was quite a good watch with some of parliaments member/law makers actually lending an ear to the real down falls and incompatibilities of the current proposed bill. 

They all called for either a complete scrapping of the bill, or serious reworking of many many factors. Watching many of the speakers voice their points really made me see how unconstitutional the bill is, and also made me think, it was actually the biggest waste of time and possible industry development that could have ever been under taken. One of the prominent group members even said, would we be playing into governments hands if we were to go back to court. 

Who knows what happens behind closed doors. But for sure government heard what was said and if they do not respond with a more inclusive structure, they know what the community will do, resulting in more time wasted and more possible corruption monies to be had. The suffocating of the commercial aspects in the local market is going to have a long term effect that might not be able to be reversed if held back too long. Less jobs and less rural/local development.

Today FOGFA will be speaking and introducing their manifesto which is inline with the needs of the local market and will ensure fair and sustainable growth in the local industry as well as the systems that will be necessary to ensure an efficacious end products. The Department of health / the Department of Justice / SAPS and SAPHRA were nowhere to be seen when these public hearing happened yesterday. I hope they chime in today and voice their opinions, either way it looks like Government understands the bill is flawed in one way or another.