CANNABIS CULTURE – Craft cannabis growers demand a seat at the table. Observers say this trial will define their future, and the future of cannabis growth in the Global South.
“Victory will be a superb tribute to the late Julian Stobbs who dies tragically. ‘Trial of the plant’ could be the most important cannabis verdict across all of Africa. One victory will filter down to all instantly,’ says Dikeledi Matla, chairperson of the Soweto Cannabis Alliance Forum, a South African lobby for Black cannabis cultivators.
“We are closely watching it.”
Cannabis was legalized in South Africa four years ago. However, aspects of its use and
possession are still criminalized. Hence – as a tribute to the tragic murder of the country’s most
famous cannabis activist – there is ‘Trial of the Plant’ – a keenly watched court battle in South Africa
to free cannabis use for everyone there.
The Dagga Couple
Julian Stobbs and his partner Myrtle Clarke, dubbed ‘the dagga couple’ were jointly the engine behind
South Africa’s so-called ‘trial of the plant.’ ‘Dagga’ is colloquial given to cannabis in South Africa.
Stobbs was murdered during a home invasion in Johannesburg at dawn in July 2020, underlining the
scourge of South Africa’s runaway violent crime.
Clarke – the surviving partner has vowed to continue the fight.
Clarke is up against seven government ministries in South Africa, anti-cannabis doctor groups, and thousands of court pages of evidence. Clarke seeks declaratory order that legalizes all aspects of iindividual cannabis possession and uses in South Africa from food to leisure to medical extractions.
“We are following ‘trial of the plant’ because our so-called landmark legalization of cannabis in South Africa in 2018 slightly deceives. It has mountains of restrictions,” explains Shimmer Pasi, treasurer of the Sandton Cannabis Boutiques Forum, a grouping of small boutique stores seeking licenses to openly sell cannabis on main street retail spaces in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Not enough
Four years ago South Africa decriminalized cannabis for personal use in private and cultivation at the
corporation level.
“That’s not enough and that’s not acceptable,” says Matla, the Black growers cannabis lobby leader.
Many South Africans are fuming that legalization of cannabis has happened on paper and in some cases left them criminalized even more. Cannabis permits take a long and are doled mainly to well-heeled foreign corporations, cannabis member clubs have their facilities raided and destroyed by police – advocates in South Africa have told Cannabis Culture repeatedly.
Matla feels four years on, South Africa is no closer to regulated and easy use of cannabis in the manner tobacco and alcohol. The 2018 landmark legalization verdict has left so many inbuilt restrictions and hence the importance of ‘trial of the plant’.
“That’s why ‘trial of the plant’ could unleash a revolution of demands not only in South Africa but neighboring Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Zambia because the fury is the same – regulation of cannabis on
paper but 100 obstacles that make even smoking a joint on the roadside liable to arrest,” adds Matla.
The legalization of cannabis in South Africa has landed well-heeled foreign corporations from the
EU or Canada lucrative medical cannabis sector but largely restricted local Black South Africans, for
campaigners like Matla, the stakes are clear.
“That’s why ‘trial of the plant’ is very important, our legalization has been “unfair legalization,” he says.
Half victory
South Africa’s ‘dagga couple’ began challenging their state in court over cannabis way back in 2011, culminating in the legalization ruling four years ago.
“It was a half victory,” says Pasi the cannabis boutique shops entrepreneurs who say the state is defeated, the South Africa Health Products Regulatory Authority, which is accused of holding Stalinist powers over medical cannabis license applications, will never again be a hindrance to the flourishing of an inclusive cannabis industry in South Africa.
“Trial of the plant will be a sweet, unrestricted, and final win. The government fears ‘trial of the plant’ hence you see even government ministers joining the court process opposing it,” says Pasi.
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