Submitted by CannaBil

More than two weeks have passed since the decided date for a directive to the SAPS from the Presidency (30 June). This was announced in the letter from the Presidency on the final day of the Cannabis Phakisa Action Lab, convened by the Presidency and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development to “fast-track” development in the Cannabis Sector.

Predictably, we are still unclear on what we are waiting for.

One question does arise, however. Are we seriously waiting for another week, or month, or year, or decade, or lifetime to pass before we accept that we will likely never get quite what has been alluded to and discussed and deliberated and eventually obliterated into a quiet echo of its past form?

Where there’s smoke…

The atmosphere enveloping the entire Cannabis Sector lies thick and heavy, not unlike clouds billowing out of hotboxed cars in the age of true, honest to Jah prohibition. We have existed in this strange limbo, where nothing is quite legislated, regulated, or indeed honoured, for far too long.

This murkiness that never seems to dissipate is due to complacency and forgetfulness. Well, ‘complacency’ is just a pretty word for privilege – that thing most enjoyed by those with the least likelihood of facing terror and pain and violation. This makes them the most likely to wrought the same widely, and without a consequential utterance of how they are manipulating and bending so many to their will.

Complacency also implies compliance; a compliance lacking choice and free will and basic human rights. Complying to the status quo, to operate within the ambit of the proposed Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill, to continue to have good people obey bad laws will be our undoing!

Mirrored reflexes

We need to clear the smoke and dash the mirrors without superstition that decisive action will lead to some kind of bad luck – we have existed with bad luck for long enough! Those glittering shards are best utilised as a means to reflect on the fragmentation caused by those in the Cannabis space that will never mind going so low as to exploit the most desperate in the battles ensuing around legalising Cannabis.

These Damned Spots will grasp at any moment of relevance they can claw out for themselves, to build some false sense of belonging and authority, generally for personal profit. They will ride out the good names of those capable of participating at the table that they scurry beneath to gather the scraps from, if they can indeed get near the table. They will make bold claims and proclaim them louder when right, but hope we all forget by never speaking of it again if they are wrong.

This is true for any individual, organisation, franchised dagga cult, legislative official, regulatory body, really anyone who has any kind of influence on how the path toward re-legalisation is carved and eventually walked.

Minute mistakes and the usual delays by and from Government simply result in the same reflexive bullshit being perpetuated by those using their black mirrors to boast their relevance and disruption of the due process and diligence required to actually unleash Dagga for ALL!

In Memory’s fade

In our forgetfulness, we read only the headlines of news reports from reputable, paywall reinforced sources, about police agreeing to stop Cannabis arrests. While these kinds of headlines are incorrect for so many reasons, they prove an excellent indicator of how easily exploitable and excitable an exhausted populace can be.

Many read this and similar headlines – which are generally clickbait AF – and neglect the articles, which hold some good info but nothing truly reflective of the changes that are indeed coming, if any at all. Many of the articles released since the Cannabis Phakisa have revealed nothing new nor unique, whether disseminated by news outlets or Cannabis proponents.

In lieu of objective reporting and actual sound information on the promised changes we have a bunch of literal noobs in positions of influence – albeit socially speaking rather than truly politically – sharing half-truths and full lies over social media and messaging channels, shouting ‘Whoop-dee-fucking-doo!’

Their followers echo and spread the same without reading the letter from the Presidency nor hearing the cautionary notes that we are still waiting for an outcome since 2018 while many more have queued up since.

We forget too easily that 2019 saw the same kind of directive handed over to the bunch of SAPS that are no more than state-sanctioned thugs beating and locking us up. Everyone seems to be suffering a terrible case of selective amnesia!

Yep, reading the OG directive, one quickly sees that comparing Dagga and “Hemp” is equally as frivolous as believing that new changes are underway when past changes are hardly respected.

Look closely at the new promises made and look even closer at those never honoured. Decide for yourself whose pawn you will be or if you will rise up and hold our masters accountable!