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Constitutional Court upholds dagga decriminalisation

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The Constitutional Court has ruled that the private use of cannabis is decriminalised.

The ruling comes after the High Court in the Western Cape ruled in March that a ban on cannabis use by adults at home was unconstitutional, effectively decriminalizing it in the province.

It is the climax of a case that has pitted officials against marijuana advocates and the judiciary.

Last year, the High Court in the Western Cape found certain sections of the Drugs Act and the Medicines Act to be inconsistent with the Constitution as they prohibited the use of cannabis by an adult in a private home for personal consumption.

Several ministers including those of the Police, Health, Social Development as well as the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) brought an application for leave to appeal this judgment in the Constitutional court.

The application to decriminalise cannabis was brought by Rastafarian Gareth Prince and others.

They argued that both the Medicines Act and Drugs Act which criminalised the use and possession of cannabis is inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid.

The High court found that provisions in the acts unjustifiably limited the applicants’ rights to privacy. The court also found it unjustifiable to prevent a person from possessing, purchasing or cultivating cannabis in the privacy of their own homes.

The State says there’s objective proof of the harmful effects of cannabis and, as such, the blanket ban on all its use, possession or cultivation by private persons should remain in effect.

It said its psychoactive components cause the impairment of reasoning abilities and that cannabis is also dangerous because it is a “gateway” drug which leads its users to experiment with other more dangerous and illicit substances.

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