An Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) meeting was convened at Freedom Park in Pretoria on Wednesday 15th March to discuss the Medicines Control Council’s (MCC) medical Cannabis cultivation proposals in South Africa.

The Rastafari from Gauteng, the Eastern and Western Capes were present as were members of the National Traditional Healers Association. Dr Thandeka Kunene, CEO of House Of Hemp convened this important and very necessary gathering to carefully explain the proposed rules and regulations pertaining to a legal medical cannabis market as promulgated by the MCC.

Dr Kunene spent a lot of time explaining each proposed regulation in detail and it soon became clear to all present the the MCC’s guidelines precluded almost everyone in the room. For a start, anyone with THC in their blood (all the Rastas) or anyone with a dagga conviction (most of the Rastas) would be excluded from the proposed medical cannabis industry.

The Traditional Healers would be completely excluded purely from a financial standpoint. Nobody in the room would have been able to afford the R21k (non refundable) to apply for a license, nor would anyone in the room be able to afford the equipment, security and growing protocols of indoor cannabis the MCC were proposing.

A representative from the Dept Science & Technology managed to mention the word ‘control’ 14 times in a 10 minute speech which says just about everything. He even went so far as to suggest cannabis wasn’t indigenous to Africa and therefore would be categorised as a western medicine. As you can imagine, there was consternation and a lot of discussion on the subject ensued.

After three hours, it was clear to all present the MCC were after complete control of the medical market which was really what the meeting set out to do.

The meeting was split into three groups to promulgate their specific objections.
The combined objections can be read in the following pdf document:
IKS comments on the MCC Cannabis growing guidelines 2017

We urge everyone to download this document and use it as a guideline to formulate your own objections to the MCC’s proposals.
All objections are to be sent to Griffith Molewa at the MCC: Griffith.Molewa@health.gov.za It is important that you ‘CC’ the following addresses so nothing gets lost or ignored at the MCC.
mdunjwa@parliament.gov.za
dsenokoanyane@gpl.gov.za
nndaba@gpl.gov.za
wjames@parliament.gov.za
gqadatandeka@gmail.com
fmahlaule@nwpl.org.za
mshaik-emam@parliament.gov.za
snkomo@parliament.gov.za
nmatiase@parliament.gov.za
cmajeke@parliament.gov.za
pmaesela@parliament.gov.za
hkhosa@parliament.gov.za
sjafta@parliament.gov.za
ngodi@parliament.gov.za