Legal news and commentary from the offices of Simon Dippenaar
Your conviction is not wiped clean yet! What happens to convictions for possession of cannabis, now that the law has changed? Are criminal convictions automatically expunged, because the offence is no longer illegal? Or is a conviction forever based on the law in force at the time the offence was committed? We explain. Decriminalisation for […]
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 […]
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 […]
