The South African Police Service has confirmed that they will no longer be bothering to arrest anybody for personal-use cultivation or possession of cannabis.

“In short, possession, use and cultivation of cannabis by an adult, for personal consumption, in private, is permitted. In contrast, dealing in cannabis is not permitted, therefore commercialization of cannabis is still not legal in South Africa,” Brigadier Athlende Mathe told IOL on Wednesday (a brigadier is an officer in the British army above colonel and below major general).

According to the IOL report, cannabis has been decriminalized in South Africa for several years but a new SAPS police directive has cleared up a bit of confusion that began in 2018 when the South African Constitutional Court declared a law banning cannabis use in private as unconstitutional. 

“I am of the view that the prohibition of the performance of any activity in connection with the cultivation of cannabis by an adult in private for his or her personal consumption in private is inconsistent with the right to privacy entrenched in the Constitution and is constitutionally invalid,” said Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo in his 2018 ruling.

This ruling essentially made private use of cannabis legal in the country but police still technically had the power to arrest people for it because the regulations didn’t contain enough detail surrounding what specifically constituted legal vs illegal activity.

The new police directive would allow South African cannabis consumers to grow and consume their own cannabis provided they do it in a private space. What constitutes a private space is, as with all laws, somewhat up to interpretation.

“No arrests are to be made for personal and private cultivation and/or possession of cannabis, which activities are not criminal,” Brigadier Mathe said. “Furthermore, no arrests of alleged cannabis offenders should be effected merely for the reason to achieve predetermined targets and without assurance that there is indeed a crime that will be enrolled and prosecuted by the National Prosecuting Authority,” Mathe said, referring to police quotas maintaining officers make a certain amount of arrests each month for certain types of crimes.

According to the IOL report, a private space basically just means four walls and a roof, or anything that prevents others from accessing it. This could be a house, a shed, a car, a 4×4 Vivosun grow tent placed haphazardly outside with the roof cut off. It’s a little bit arbitrary and the cultivator does not need to technically own the space to be permitted to cultivate there. As long as you’re not selling the cannabis itself to anybody, SAPS said they will not arrest you.

These changes can be credited to updates in Section 1 of the Drugs and Trafficking Act, No. 140 of 1992, which expanded the definition of the phrase “deal in” to include a more rigid definition which IOL listed as follows:

“Under the newly defined Act, the phrase “deal in” involves any act in connection with the trans-shipment, importation, cultivation other than the cultivation of cannabis by an adult in a private place for his or her personal consumption in private, collection, manufacture, supply, prescription, administration, sale, transmission or exportation of the drug.”

As many Americans living in legal states can attest to, South Africa cannabis consumers still have a long confusing path to walk before they can truly breathe easy but this still marks a sizable step forward for cannabis legalization. South Africa is one of only six countries on the African continent where cannabis isn’t fully illegal. They are also the only African country to have decriminalized cannabis for recreational use. According to the IOL report, cannabis distributed by religions, tradition or cultural healers in small quantities is also regarded as private and personal, topping off a long list of gaping legal loopholes that will make for some very interesting years to come in South Africa. 

Maybe I’ll take a trip one of these days on the off chance I find somebody growing some serious heat in a minivan somewhere, but my buddy once told me they have lions just casually walking around over there so maybe not.

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For those watching the swing of European states into the pro cannabis column, the developments in Portugal have been a source of both optimism and frustration for the past several years.

The production of cannabis for medical export purposes was initiated by Tilray as they looked for a country more open to cannabis cultivation than Germany in 2017. Since then, commercial cultivation and extraction has blossomed domestically. Indeed Portugal is now seen as one of the most important feeder countries for the German medical cannabis market.

As a result of this as well as the general tolerance of cannabis in the country, the legislature was widely expected to introduce and pass formal recreational reform legislation late in 2021 or at the latest, by early this year. However, the issue stalled when the sitting government failed to pass the 2022 budget and a snap election was called for the end of January. The swearing in of the new Parliament was also delayed by a month and a half due to controversies that arose from the counting of overseas ballots.

In such an environment, cannabis reform is not going to be the priority.

European Cannabis Reform Is a Zeitgeist Topic

However, those advocating for reform have not just gone away. Further, it appears that as of this summer, the prioritization of legalization has re-entered the political room.

The Left Bloc party, one of the political groups that helped bring about the fall of the old government by voting against its budget, is renewing its calls for cannabis legalization—even if it is of the personal, home-grow variety. However, they also are expecting support from the ruling Socialist Party in going a bit further than this—namely the establishment of a formal industry.

According to Left Bloc member Catarina Martins, “One year ago this week the initiative of the Left Block was debated in the parliament: the legalization of cannabis. As you know, this process did not come to an end.” The party believes that this is the time to push for reform because of a collective agreement amongst elected officials (if not Portugal, traditionally beyond this) that Prohibition has never worked.

“To defend public health is to end hypocrisy,” said Martins. “And we believe that there are now all the conditions to end this hypocrisy in Portugal. We know that there are so many people, on all sides of the parliament, which have already realized that the hypocrisy of prohibition has been a way of putting young people at risk.”

Further, in what seems to be a page out of the developments in Austria right now, the Left Bloc is pressuring their colleagues to pass this reform based on the principal of personal freedom.

Serious Momentum or More Stalling in Portugal?

For those following the political particulars on the ground, this is apparently the beginning of a new domestic momentum to finally pass meaningful legislation. This is the case because of Portugal’s history on drug use. The country infamously decriminalized the personal use and possession of all drugs in 2001 (which as a byproduct also influenced the Oregon decriminalization measure in Oregon in 2020).

The legitimacy of this call for legalization may also sound a bit strange to foreigners because of who is pushing for the reform to progress. The Left Bloc party is a product of the merger of several groups on the left side of the political discussion including the Marxist People’s Democratic Union, the Trotskyist Revolutionary Socialist Party, and Politics XXI.

Mention the word “socialist” much less terms like “Marxist” or “Trotskyist” in any political debate in the United States, and one is laughed out of the room.

This is, of course, also quite different in Portugal, where the party has elected members in the national legislative body.

While the constituent parties that have made up its base sound radical, particularly to Americans, the party also has a reputation as the country’s largest supporter of women’s and gay rights, with a strong civil liberties platform that takes vocal stands against racism. In Portugal at least, they are seen as “socially libertarian.”

“Controlling the risks and putting an end to hypocrisy is public health policy and this is also the commitment that the Left Bloc is making in a month in which we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the national strategy to combat drugs,” said Martins.

It will, as a result, surprise nobody watching this discussion, even outside of Portugal, especially considering Germany’s decision to legalize recreational use this year, if Portugal does the same this year—even, despite all the delays, beating Deutschland to the punch.

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