I am a 50 year old, white, Afrikaans, male who smoked (take note, I stopped 3-4 years ago) marijuana on a daily basis, I work for a very prestigious company, hold a highly qualified position and work primarily with professionals.

I started smoking at the age of 16 on a daily basis. I did this through my last 2 years of school, 7 years of varsity. I have a doctorate in my profession. I smoked the equivalent of up to 20 joints per day, never before work, but after. I smoked in excess of a ‘bankie’ per day over weekends and smoked like this for the last 15 years of smoking. I illegally grew plants in my back-yard and regularly harvested and smoked what I grew. This happened pretty much for 29-30 years of my life. NOTE: I never sold, supplied nor distributed anything.

The day I decided to stop smoking cannabis, i had myself fully tested by first of all my doctor and then by Mediclinic. (I informed my doctor of my habit and that I did a “cold turkey”.) I did a battery of tests for more than 3 months and guess what, No side effects. No withdrawals, Nothing to speak of. I just stopped…

The problem I faced for almost 30 years of my life was I (1)Always felt like a criminal, (2)Had to permanently associate with criminal elements to get supplied, (3)Had to see and get exposed to more illicit drugs that I did not care for and (4)Had to live a double life for longer than I cared for.

I have, over this 30 years, been in contact with all kinds of drug-addicts due to my ‘habit’ and I have seen destruction of lives because cannabis is illegal. The reason for this is the same person selling ‘dagga’ also sells ‘buttons’, ‘E’s’, ‘LSD’ and speed. For any young person the so-called ‘gateway-drug’ ‘dagga’ represents is not ‘dagga’, but what surrounds it.

I believe very much the legalization of cannabis will also (1)Empty jail cells, relieving the taxpayers  the burden to feed and house criminals, (2)Relieve our justice system of ‘petty’ cases, (3)Stop or lessen the exposure of younger people to ‘hard drugs’ and (4)Create revenue to our country by means of taxes and visitors.

Legalization will also change the psychic of our social South African lives into a productive, positive way and (at least) 30% of our country’s population will not have a social stigma attached to their preferences.

I hope South Africans will start educating themselves and not believe what mass-media and profit-driven pharmaceutical companies would like them to believe.