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The African Democratic Change congratulates civil society, including Dagga couple in expediting the cannabis legislation in South Africa. ADeC Leader, Moses Mayekiso says that the criminalisation of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use was indeed a shame and infringed on the rights of the African people. We expect the Constitutional Court to fully legalise cannabis tomorrow without prejudice.

ADeC has been actively advocating for the legalisation of cannabis for some time now and is happy that the time has come that we can finally see this happening. This myth that legalisation of marijuana will lead to increased consumption by youth and links to crime must be debunked. We have seen the long history of cannabis use as a treatment for those suffering from Cancer, Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

By criminalising marijuana, we turned ordinary citizens who use it recreationally into criminals. From a socio-economic perspective, legalising cannabis will stimulate revenue in the economy if regulated correctly and will also take restrict distribution from drug lords using it as a gateway for other dangerous drugs. This will bring into the mainstream economy more than $2 Billion.

Think of the gains for job creation and domestic agriculture markets, especially in rural areas. It is essential that policymakers engage with the public to understand an existing cannabis economy, one that is centuries old, the so-called “black market” functions very efficiently and contributes to the economy. We are still pushing for full legalisation of cannabis for commercial and economic reasons, especially in terms of tax revenues for our economy.

We have seen the legalisation of cannabis working effectively in many countries including Canada without negative consequences.

Issued by ADeC