Not all thumbs are up for legalised cannabis

Date: 01 October 2018 By: Jo Robinson

The Constitutional Court of South Africa’s recent legalisation of the growing and personal use of cannabis has both fierce support and equally strong opposition from residents of Louis Trichardt, as well as the rest of the country.

Local resident Frans Rootman shared his opinion and said, “This judgement entrenches our right to privacy as contemplated in Section 14 of our Constitution. I have never used cannabis, nor intend using it. However, I value my right to privacy dearly and do not want the State to infringe on said right … Despite not agreeing with the use of dagga except for medical reasons, I support the judgement, as it entrenches my constitutional right to privacy.”

Other residents disagree. Some violently disagree, while others are less militant in their opinions. Anonymous says: “My point of view on the legalisation of dagga is that it should not have been. If it’s been prescribed as medication then yes, but not for general use. The reason is simple, many people start with dagga but most end up as drug addicts and without a future.”

Many jokes about “social” users of cannabis have been circulating social media sites since its legalisation in South Africa, but scattered among them are some serious articles about the use of this plant. While Snoop Dog’s comment “Don’t get in Willie Nelson’s way when munchies are involved” may make people chuckle, some people are surprised to find out that some social icons that they admire have made it onto the regularly published The Marijuana Policy Project’s Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Consumers list. While people may not be surprised to see Lady Gaga, Hugh Heffner and Whoopi Goldberg on this list, they may be very surprised to see names such as Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Al Gore and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr Sanjay Gupta.

A highly respected leader in the Vhembe traditional healing community, Maine Matamba Mamuremi, shared his knowledge on the current and historic role of cannabis, or mbanzhe as he calls it, in African culture. “We have welcomed the fact that the government’s ruling will now allow us to use it to help our patients, and we encourage all traditional users to use it for medicinal purposes and not for selling,” he said.

Mamuremi said that mbanzhe had been used by traditional healers for centuries, in many ways. Depending on the disease or ailment, it can be smoked or ingested by patients. “We also use it in rituals,” said Mamuremi.

He added that traditional healers were currently using it for the treatment of malaria, blood poisoning, HIV Aids, asthma, depression and for helping those with certain mental illnesses as well as many other illnesses and problems. While Mamuremi is a proponent of using cannabis for medicinal, traditional ritual and spiritual practices, he does not agree with the selling of it to just anyone and urges other traditional healers never to do that. Mbanzhe is not meant for “fun” purposes, but to be used with respect.

Studies following the legalising of cannabis elsewhere in the world have led to different opinions, however. The state of Colorado (USA) legalised cannabis on 6 November 2012. In the years since then they have had some changed statistics, which they attribute to that legalisation, and these statistics have formed the base of evidence by detractors of the legalisation. Doctors for Life (DFL), which is an organization of about 1500 doctors, specialists and professors of medicine from different medical faculties across South Africa and abroad, have shared their disappointment with the judgement of the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

They state that it is a harmful, psychoactive drug and that scientific research points to massive ignorance of the known dangers. They feel that “What people do with Cannabis in the privacy of their homes is relevant to the whole of society”. They say that, according to the latest data, since cannabis was legalised in Colorado, cannabis-related traffic deaths increased by 151%, the annual rate of emergency department visits related to cannabis use has increased by 52%, and that cannabis-related hospitalisations increased by 148%. The current governor of Colorado recently told CNN that he was not ruling out making cannabis illegal again as a result of the continued rise of violent and property crime in the state since the legalisation of cannabis.

Another Louis Trichardt resident, who is currently undergoing treatments for cancer, one of which is medical cannabis, shared with the Zoutpansberger several accounts by cancer survivors. He said many swore that their total cure and remission could only have been due to their use of medicinal cannabis, which mostly involves ingesting rather than smoking it. One patient was given no chance of survival without a double mastectomy; however, following her taking of cannabis capsules, she kept both of her breasts and is currently in complete remission.

While the World Health Organisation (WHO) conducts ongoing scientific research into cannabis, it currently lists the substance as a drug that, with regular use, impairs cognitive development and psychomotor performance in a wide variety of tasks for up to 24 hours after use. They state that it can exacerbate schizophrenia in affected individuals, and that the prior use of cannabis is found in a high rate of suicide cases. While they admit that “studies have demonstrated the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of diseases such as cancer and Aids”, among other ailments - including symptoms of post-traumatic-stress disorder - they also state that more research is needed on the basic neuropharmacology of THC and other cannabinoids, so that better therapeutic agents can be found.

Love it or hate it, people are now free to grow and partake of cannabis in whichever way they wish to for personal use in homes anywhere in South Africa. Some are planning to enjoy the legal pleasure they feel they can now derive from smoking it. Other people believe that it may be wise to heed the advice of Maine Matamba Mamuremi and treat this ancient and mystical plant with respect, trusting our different healers, African or Western, to advise on its safest and best use.

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Jo Robinson

Jo joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2018 pursuing a career in journalism after many years of writing fiction and non-fiction for other sectors.

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