‘Flawed cannabis bill’ will delay growth

• Critics urge parliamentary committee to include commercialisation for recreational use

An amended bill does not legalise commercial production of cannabis and can delay President Cyril Ramaphosa’s vision for this industry to create more than 130,000 new jobs, parliament’s justice & correctional services committee heard on Tuesday.

An amended bill does not legalise commercial production of cannabis and can delay President Cyril Ramaphosa’s vision for this industry to create more than 130,000 new jobs, parliament’s justice & correctional services committee heard on Tuesday.

The committee has been told that the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill in its current form does not provide for the commercialisation of cannabis.

The committee has held public hearings on the bill, but called for public comment and held further hearings on proposed amendments to three aspects of the bill: commercial activities relating to recreational cannabis; cultivation, possession and supply of cannabis plants and cannabis by cultural or religious communities or organisations for cultural or religious purposes; and using of cannabis for palliation or medication.

The amended bill says commercial cannabis activities “are authorised subject to the enactment of national legislation”.

The bill, approved by the cabinet in August 2020, came about because of a 2018 Constitutional Court finding that the ban on personal cannabis use was unconstitutional. The court gave parliament 24 months to rectify this and decriminalised the use or possession of cannabis by an adult in private.

Several presenters urged the committee to include commercialisation of cannabis to the bill. That would make Ramaphosa’s vision — expressed in his February state of the nation address — a reality.

Umzimvubu Farmers Support Network director Ricky Stone argued the bill should enable commercial activity. There should be a single, allencompassing law catering to all legitimate uses of cannabis, including medical, nonmedical, adult and industrial uses.

Cullinan & Associates lawyer Paul-Michael Keichel said the bill should provide for commercialisation of cannabis, and there is a need to go back to the drawing board to fix the “fatally flawed bill”.

Karoo Bioscience CEO Doron Isaacs said two deficiencies in the bill are that it seems to tie any future “commercial activities” to the notion of “recreational cannabis” when it should also allow for medicinal use, and that it envisages a future law to permit commercial activity in recreational cannabis.

“It seems a major missed opportunity not to advance this aspect [commercialisation] a little further in this bill. Our proposal in this regard is that the bill should empower the minister of justice and correctional services to promulgate regulations, in concurrence with the minister of trade, industry & competition, permitting commercial activities in cannabis,” he said.

“In his 2022 state of the nation address, the president announced that commercial cannabis activities would create 130,000 new jobs. The bill in its present form will delay this opportunity by years because it postpones any commercial activity to some future, unspecified legislative process, rather than addressing it in this one,” said Isaacs. Neither would the potential annual tax revenue of R4bn estimated by former finance minister Tito Mboweni be collected.

Isaacs said while the revised bill purports to expand access on medical grounds, it grants only those who obtain the required medical certificate the same rights to private cultivation, possession and use, as have been enjoyed by the public since the Constitutional Court judgment. Those with medical prescriptions will still not be permitted to buy cannabis.

“The bill fails to recognise that those requiring cannabis for medicinal purposes would benefit enormously if they were able to legally purchase the product,” Isaacs said. The bill restricts the means of acquiring cannabis for medicinal purposes to homegrown operations or the benevolence of a home-grower giving cannabis without charge.

Isaacs argued that someone with a medical certificate should be allowed to buy, subject to regulations, product from producers licensed by the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), which requires that licensed cultivators comply with good manufacturing practice, the global standard for pharmaceutical production.

Sahpra-licensed facilities are required to test their products to ensure that they are free of heavy metals, pesticides, fungi, mycotoxins and other contaminants and to state clearly the cannabinoid content and dosage of their products.

“None of these standards applies to home growers, yet the bill consigns those with medically certified grounds for cannabis use to consume homegrown cannabis. As such, those with medical conditions will be required by law to take their chances, with the state playing no quality oversight role whatsoever, and patients not knowing what they are putting into their bodies,” Isaacs said.

He also proposed that the phrase “recreational use” be replaced by “adult use” as cannabis is often used to moderate stress, anxiety, insomnia, pain or other symptoms.

“It must be recognised that most cannabis users will not grow their own cannabis. Nor will they be gifted it for no consideration. Most cannabis users will continue to purchase what they consume. This is the social and economic reality that the bill must take as its point of departure [...] the bill in its present form would continue to criminalise most cannabis users in SA.”