Dagga debates to weed out ‘legal hypocrisy’

UP IN SMOKE: Dagga activist Jules Stobbs exhales a big cannabis oil hit from his vaporizer while partner Myrtle Clarke looks on at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Pic: David Macgregor

After more than 40 years on the fringe of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, dagga finally stepped out of the shadows and into the mainstream.

Usually whispered about in hushed tones and smoked in dark corners, pot took centre stage as red-eyed stoners, bluerinse pensioners and academics scrambled to find out more about weed at talks on decriminalisation and the medicinal benefits of the plant.

Even South Africa’s high-profile dagga couple, Jules Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke, made the long haul to festival city, where they smoked high-quality cannabis oil from an odourless vaporizer at a busy High Street coffee shop.

“This is the best thing ever,” Stobbs explained as he loaded an oil drop into the electronic vaporizer.

Similar to e-cigarettes, vaporizers have been selling like hot cakes at the festival.

After smoking dagga their entire lives, Stobbs and Clarke became the South African poster couple of legalisation after they were busted at their house in 2010 with more than 115 grams of dagga.

Instead of rolling over and pleading guilty, the couple did what thousands before had only dreamt of and mounted a legal challenge, claiming the laws that banned the plant were a relic of apartheid.

Supported by dagga smokers, the couple has raised hundreds of thousands of rands through crowd funding to fly in world experts to testify at the case.

According to the couple, they are not just campaigning for the right for over-18s to be allowed to smoke pot “responsibly”, they are also doing it for people to use and grow for cultural, religious and medical reasons.

“We don’t want to compartmentalise it. South Africans should be able to use dagga however they like.”

At a Think!Fest talk titled “Weeding out legislative hypocrisy”, the couple’s lawyer, Paul-Michael Keichel, from top legal firm Schindlers, said flying out expert witnesses was vital to properly deal with the issue.

He said opinions on dagga ranged from “Devil cabbage” that will cause the sky to fall on your head to others that tout it as a miracle cure-all.

According to Keichel, rational thought and consistent lawmaking were needed to properly tackle what was fundamentally a human rights issue.

He said research had revealed dagga use was less harmful than legal fixes like tobacco and alcohol, and that years of prohibition had done little to stem the tide of people using it and getting busted.

During another well-attended Think!Fest panel discussion entitled “Decriminalising Dagga”, medical experts and dagga users discussed the pros and cons of using the weed.

Fort England Psychiatric Hospital senior clinical psychologist Dr Scott Wood said although dagga was the first illegal drug most youth experimented with, it was usually preceded by trying cigarettes.

He said 80% of people in rehab for substance abuse had started out smoking dagga.

Although research did raise concerns over how early use affected brain development in younger smokers, Wood conceded that little research had been done on the health benefits of dagga.

He said unlike other substances, dagga stayed in a person’s system for a month or more and regular users developed a tolerance that required using more to get high.

“The problem with research is that it can be manipulated by the people doing it to come up with the outcomes they want,” Wood said.

Anther panellist, Dr Celia Jameson, said the use of dagga in palliative care of terminally ill people had helped improve their quality of life during their final days.

“It can be highly successful, but there is a downside. It is a very controversial field,” she said.

During a talk at the popular 37 on New nightclub, the dagga couple laid out their struggles to light up without getting busted.

Emboldened by the couple’s struggle, many in the audience – from all walks of life – lit up ganja spliffs or passed round vaporizers as they listened intently.