Legal news and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar
Court rules grow clubs do not constitute “private use” The Haze Club is – or was – a cooperative-type arrangement whereby individuals brought their own seeds to the club to be cultivated by horticulturists, in return for the harvested and dried plant for their private use when ready. Grow clubs like this, claims owner Neil […]
Warning comes amid rise in expulsions under federal law – even in states where drug is legal Don’t be fooled by the use of “Britons” in the headline. This article first appeared in the Guardian, a UK newspaper, hence the focus on Britons, but the warning applies to all visitors to the US. As cannabis […]
Cannabis to be grown for medicinal use in Cape Town In our practice and on this website we have followed the cannabis story closely, from the first ruling that cannabis consumption in private by adults would not be prosecuted on the basis of privacy laws, to the legalisation of cannabis for personal use by the […]
Parliament has amended legislation regarding dagga use and police officers have received instruction from the Police Commissioner We wrote last year about the Constitutional Court ruling regarding dagga, or cannabis. The ConCourt judgement effectively decriminalised the possession and cultivation of cannabis in private by adults for personal consumption. The definition of “in private” extends beyond one’s […]
Dagga legalisation has been big news in the past week. But what exactly does it mean in practice? Since last week’s Constitutional Court ruling on the possession of dagga for private use, SD Law has been inundated with queries about the practical implications of this decision. How does it differ from last year’s Western Cape […]
Cannabis – The seriousness of the crime and the sentence are much greater for dealing, but what determines dealing vs. possession? Many of you may recall that last year the Western Cape High Court ruled that cannabis (dagga or marijuana) can be used by adults in the privacy of their own homes, and […]
Medical Marijuana As we covered previously, on 31 March the Western Cape High Court ruled that marijuana (cannabis or dagga) can be used by adults in the privacy of their own homes, and may be cultivated for private use. Even before that groundbreaking verdict, South Africans were using marijuana privately for medicinal use, and were […]
On 31 March the Western Cape High Court ruled that marijuana (dagga or cannabis) can be used by adults in the privacy of their own homes, and may be cultivated for private use. The decision was based on the view that banning use of marijuana is an infringement of the right to privacy. Undoubtedly this […]
There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to dealing with marijuana. Information about the advantages and disadvantages of drug use is widely available but everyone interprets that information differently to arrive at their own conclusions, often widely divergent.
A very controversial subject – everyone has an opinion and there are many conflicting views. In this article, we’ll outline some background information with special relevance to South Africa. Marijuana / Cannabis Marijuana, the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant, is popularly known as cannabis or hashish, bhang, hemp, kef, kif, charas […]
