Mbuso has been growing cannabis for 14 years. He lives and tends the illicit crop in Swaziland, which is now known officially as Eswatini. Mbuso is just one of scores who depend on high demand from their larger neighbour South Africa for their potent cannabis strain known as "Swazi Gold". They are worried that a recent legal amendment in SA could choke their businesses. In September, South Africa's Constitutional Court decriminalised the use and cultivation of cannabis in private space. But the decision did not legalise its trade or distribution. Florida-based company Profile Solutions Inc has recently received a coveted 10-year licence to produce and sell hemp and medical-grade cannabis in Eswatini. But small-scale farmers are still being prosecuted, detained and having their crops burnt.

The Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, which aims to cater for those who use marijuana for medical and recreational purposes, has been met with fierce opposition in Parliament. The cannabis plant in South Africa was decriminalised by the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in September 2018 and gave Parliament 24 months to amend the relevant laws. Almost five years later, Parliament is now looking to finalise the bill, which was tabled in 2020. Although it is not a criminal offence for an adult citizen to use, possess or grow cannabis for personal consumption at home, the buying and selling of marijuana remains illegal. The public was invited to provide comments on the proposed amendments to the bill.

The Eastern Cape government is calling for the protection of the local cannabis industry in South Africa. Dohne Agricultural Development Institute research director Dr Mfundo Maqubela said in a virtual presentation to Parliament’s Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee that there could be no cannabis industry if the local market is not developed. Last November, the Eastern Cape government embarked on a roadshow to gauge public sentiment about the draft bill. The bill in its present form has been accused of discriminating against people who did not have access to private spaces in which to grow their own cannabis, and it failed to make provisions on how growers could access seeds for cultivation. (See also: The poor must be included in SA’s cannabis industry boom, says Cosatu)

As South Africa looks to enter the booming commercial cannabis market, which could be worth up to R27 billion locally by 2023, the Eastern Cape Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, has repeatedly reiterated the plant’s economic promise for the Eastern Cape, the country’s poorest province. “We must not be left behind as cannabis is brought into the spotlight and the world jumps to grab their drag on the spliff,” said the department’s MEC Nomakhosazana Meth at a stakeholder event in August. But despite the fanfare, Beecee Nombanga, a Manhlaneni community leader, remained sceptical that small-scale growers would see any benefits from a legal trade that was geared towards “big companies in big towns who have a lot of resources that we simply don’t have”.

It’s not known exactly how many gangs there are in South Africa’s Western Cape province, but gang membership has been estimated at more than 100 000. Almost all these gangs, most concentrated in Cape Town, make the bulk of their money from procuring and selling illegal leisure drugs such as tik (crystal methamphetimine), heroin, nyaope (a street drug that mixes several illicit drugs) and dagga (marijuana). Herein lies the conundrum: the criminalisation of possession and use of drugs creates conditions that are conducive for organised crime. This is why understanding the use, misuse and trade of illegal drugs is central to any intervention involving gangs and any policy relating to them.

Marijuana may be an issue of easy agreement in the ongoing coalition talks between Germany's leading parties. Despite numerous points of contention, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) and Greens can find themselves aligned when it comes to cannabis legalization. The FDP emphasizes the revenue that the state could earn from taxing prerolled joints, cannabis flower and edibles. The Greens say legalization would put an end to illegal sales and reduce organized crime. Social Democrat health expert Karl Lauterbach urged the next government to legalize cannabis. Here is a look at countries that have already loosened their policies.

Learn how lessening the barriers for small farmers while raising them for large companies can help to steer legal cannabis markets in a more sustainable and equitable direction based on principles of community empowerment, social justice, fair(er) trade and sustainable development.

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Through manipulating trust and exploiting public ignorance, cannabis charlatans – new and old – are trying to construct corporate empires, some of which appear to be based on corruption, collusion and exploitation. Without transparency, credibility and integrity from the get-go, the equitable growth and sustainability of the South African cannabis community stands to be sacrificed purely for the sake of profit. In 2018 the Constitutional Court ruled that the prohibition of cultivating, possessing and consuming cannabis in private in South Africa was unconstitutional. Since then, much has been happening around cannabis. Unfortunately, the bulk of this action has been based on a misunderstanding of what both the new and developing laws mean, creating a great deal of uncertainty.

Benjamin Cadet stands among his plants in a white polo shirt bearing his company logo. He dons surgeon's gloves and handles the flowers carefully. They are full of pollen — ripe for the picking. The Ugandan entrepreneur and former member of parliament is the CEO of the only company licensed to grow and export cannabis legally in the East African country. The cannabis plantation, located in Uganda's mighty Rwenzori Mountains, extends over three hectares in the country's west, almost directly on the Equator. More than 40,000 cannabis plants thrive in greenhouses under strict hygienic conditions. They are destined for export to Europe. (See also: Aiming high: Africa’s cannabis future)

Traditional leaders from the amaMpondo nation and cannabis farmers in the Eastern Cape have rejected the Private Use Cannabis Bill. They are calling for a comprehensive consultation process that must also be extended to the indigenous cannabis farmers in deep rural areas. The area known as Mpondoland is the cannabis belt of South Africa. Cultivating and selling cannabis provides a livelihood to many here. Now they believe that the new bill threatens their only means of generating an income. Cannabis farmers says the Bill proposes that a household will only be allowed to have up to eight plants for private use. “We have been planting cannabis in our fatherland here in Pondoland. Now there are restrictions that prohibit us from using and selling it. The restrictions seek to deprive us and enrich the rich.”

If a person is found with more than 1kg of dried cannabis or nine flowering plants they could be jailed for up to 15 years. These are just some of the “arbitrary” limits on personal cannabis possession and cultivation imposed in the new Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill. Such limits are likely to be challenged should the legislation be passed by Parliament in its present form. The Bill caps private, personal home possession of cannabis at 600g a person, or 1.2kg of dried cannabis per household. Trading in the plant carries a potential jail term of 15 years. The Bill will be tabled in Parliament during the next session and was drafted in response to a Constitutional Court judgment that upheld the right to personal, private possession and cultivation of cannabis. (See also: New bill not all that dope, say activists)

The possession, cultivation and use of cannabis for private use is expected to be passed into law in two years’ time. The legalisation of the private and commercial use of cannabis forms part of the country’s plan to revive its ailing economy which has been further battered by Covid-19. Decriminalising cannabis has previously been touted by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni as one of the ways the country could plug in the hole in dwindling tax revenues. By 2023, South Africa ought to have declared hemp as an agricultural crop, made amendments to the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, and developed a new policy and legislation for the commercialisation of cannabis. (See also: New cannabis rules proposed for South Africa – to be introduced within next 2 years)

The potential for cannabis in South Africa is enormous. The country has drought-resistant acclimatised genetic strains that have naturalised over hundreds of years, combined with tens of thousands of existing farmers who are familiar with the crop and how to grow it. The country’s long history of illicit cannabis production and export puts us in a strong position to develop a local cannabis market that unlocks the entire value chain, stimulates economic growth and generates substantial tax revenue for the fiscus. Early estimates for a co-operative farming and agro-processing model based on empowering small farmers as a strategy to regenerate rural economies indicate considerable economic potential.

In September 2018, the Constitutional Court decriminalised the private cultivation of cannabis by adults for personal private consumption. This created an opportunity for businesses to ‘privately’ grow and prepare cannabis for clients. But recent police action has nipped their operations in the bud, so they want legal clarity. In October this year, police in the Western Cape announced that provincial detectives had arrested two suspects on drug trafficking charges. It turned out the target of this clampdown had been The Haze Club (THC). This service is what is known as a cannabis grow club – there are apparently several in South Africa – and involves a business leasing to clients what it deems to be private space, in an appropriate facility, where it cultivates clients’ cannabis on their behalf.

The Draft South African Cannabis Masterplan states that there are up to 900,000 traditional dagga growers in South Africa and that they and ‘dagga’ need to be included in the cannabis value chain, but makes no recommendation as to how this is to be achieved. The current trajectory of industrial and medical cannabis is exclusionary of traditional growers and our indigenous cannabis. The country’s cannabis legislation must enable existing growers to enter and participate in the value chain serving as a pro-poor mechanism to regenerate the rural economy, maximise our competitive advantage of farmers and climate-resilient and drought-tolerant genetics, formalise the massive existing illicit market and negate the necessity for further court challenges on the constitutionality of the legal framework.

The opportunity to commercialise the hemp and cannabis industry in South Africa is that it is a new, fast-growing, multi-billion dollar sector with local and international markets. The potential legal pharmaceutical market for hemp and cannabis in South Africa alone has been estimated at over R100 billion a year. But there are challenges. First, that the government fails to implement changes needed to ensure the sector grows in a way that benefits township and rural entrepreneurs farmers. The second is that, from mid-2022, small scale farmers farming cannabis promised to be issued with licences to farm legally. However, some farmers in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape are still waiting.

Many African states that persecuted citizens for cannabis related offences for years are now promoting legal cannabis production. Over the past five years 10 countries have passed laws to legalise production for medical and scientific purposes. These include Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Eswatini, Rwanda and Morocco. South Africa has also legalised the private growing of cannabis plants by adults for their own personal consumption. The cannabis policy liberalisation in Africa has been brought about by two main factors. One is the lobbying by local activists. Cannabis use is still criminalised in most African countries. The other factor is the emergence of the global legal cannabis industry projected to grow to nearly US$200 billion by 2028.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni expects the newly legal cannabis industry to pour an estimated R4 billion into the government’s dwindling tax coffers while simultaneously unlocking the country’s stagnant rural economy, he said in a tweet earlier this year. But will this potential windfall benefit ordinary people? Many South Africans are excited about the opportunities presented by this new market, since the Constitutional Court decriminalised the use, possession, and cultivation of the plant for private and personal consumption in September 2018. But there is a strict and costly bureaucratic red tape preventing most people from penetrating it.

The Black Farmers' Association of South Africa (BFASA) have threatened to shut down the regulatory authority for allegedly excluding them from opportunities in the rapidly growing cannabis industry. BFASA says it has written to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) amid concerns that the cannabis industry is not being steered in a sustainable nor inclusive manner. "SAPHRA has maliciously and deliberately blocked every aspect of the cannabis and hemp industry. Job creation. Investment from keen investors. Untold agricultural, industrial, recreational, and traditional healing methods are thwarted selfishly," Dr Lennox Xolile Mtshagi, BFASA’s national president, wrote in his letter to SAHPRA. "SAHPRA has handed the cannabis industry to 'white monopoly colonialists'."

Canopy Growth is ceasing cannabis cultivation in Africa, Canada, Colombia and the United States in a bid to “improve efficiencies” in its global operations. The company also said it is eliminating 85 full-time positions. Almost half the workforce reduction is coming from the company’s Colombian operations. The downsizing does not affect Europe. Canopy’s pullback comes after Canadian producers raked up collective net losses exceeding 6 billion Canadian dollars ($4.5 billion) in 2019, the first calendar year recreational cannabis products were allowed to be sold in Canada. Many companies, including Canopy and competitor Aurora Cannabis, invested heavily in far-flung areas of the world, where actual medical marijuana markets remain years – maybe decades – away.