We’ve spent the winter slowly but surely compiling, collating and filing our challenge. It’s not until you’re deep in the Dagga story that you realise how huge the subject is, how many different angles it has and how complex it is going to be to get the laws changed eventually.
The legal side of our case is trundling along. The courts are incredibly busy. It’s quite astounding the backlogs, which get even more lengthy at Constitutional level. It is frustrating but we remain positive in the knowledge that timing is everything in Public Interest Law. Busy courts mean that we can plan our timing and use the major developments internationally to our advantage. We also need all the time we can get to raise the money we need for both public awareness and legal costs.
On the legal front we’ve got a clear plan and have attracted some legal expertise to help by donating their time and knowledge. Mahala lawyers, now there’s a rare and beautiful thing.
As Dagga is the most researched plant on the planet, there’s a huge amount of information to find and collate. We are still looking for experienced researchers to donate some time.
We will reply to the State’s plea very soon. Senior Council promised this document, a mere formality they say, a month ago. He knows that our patience is wearing a little thin! It’s their club, their rules, their vocabulary and most certainally their tariffs. After that we can apply for a High Court date. In the meantime we are preparing the backbone of our case, searching for expert witnesses and staying on top of all things Dagga!
We’ve been listening to your suggestions and concerns. By far and away the biggest concern you have is divulging your South African ID number on our petition.
To this end we have transferred our domain to another hosting company who will give us full site encryption, including the Dagga Couple Petition.
We really need your help, though. It’s costly and we’re asking you to support the re-legalization challenge and donate whatever you can to make this happen. It’s important to get this petition right. It’s absolutely vital that we can show the courts the support that’s on the street, the votes of the people. Public support will tip the scales for sure.
With the encryption launch, we’ve had some hard working & dedicated Dagga volunteers helping our IT matrix to flourish. There’s a new site coming your way, with bright ideas on how we can fund the revolution. Already we are in partnerships with companies supporting the cannabis culture….
By supporting our partners, you’ll be supporting ‘local is lekker’ AND you’ll be directly donating to the cause . Win. Win.
www.vaporium.co.za
www.puff.co.za – coupon “daggacouple”
www.Madjat.co.za
If you’ve got a Dagga orientated goods, service or ideas – get in touch with us. Maybe there’s more win win situations to manifest.
Thank you to all of you who keep the donations coming. We use pretty much all of it all the time floating the boat. It’s a constant buzzing in the back of our heads – raising funds, raising funds raising funds.
Every time we look there are more of our supporters setting up monthly payments. All of those regular 20’s 50’s and 100’s are vital to us. Every little helps like you can’t believe…
Consider signing a debit order to the DC. It makes our planning just that bit easier AND it makes us feel wanted !
There’s one thing that we remind ourselves of regularly. When it seems all stacked against us and our inbox is bursting at the seams, we think of all the characters from all walks of life that we’ve met along the journey. The Dagga community is alive and well, we’re proud to report. We’re forging some strong and trustworthy relations that will go the distance. There’s some amazing expertise being offered too. Encoding, design, layout, law, social media….the list is growing.
There are now over 100 DC reps raising funds and spreading the word around the country. Printing, shipping and logistics all have their price. It would be amazing to print 10’s of thousands of flyers instead of thousands….It’s a much better price. We need your help please. We’ll get there with your donations. We need help with the translation of the flyers. we want them translated from English into Zulu, Afrikaans, Sotho & Xhosa. We have had a few quotes but it is way out of our league to pay for professional translation. Calling all stoner SA language boffs! Help to get the message out to ALL of SA.
We’re also looking for someone who can print our campaign DVD in quantity for us. It’s killing us reproducing them on a notebook. Takes too much time. If you can help with any of the above you can mail us: info@daggcouple.co.za
If you’d like more info on what it takes to be a DC rep and think you’ve got a skill or a resource you can offer you can go to our reps page and contact us. We are particularly interested in people who stay in small towns and rural areas. We need to cover the whole of SA. Please only apply to be a Rep if you are serious about dedicating your time and efforts.
It’s a full time operation for at least one of us to keep the campaign running. We have the ongoing task of keeping people’s attention. We think we’re achieving that just based on the amount of legalization, prohibition and Dagga articles in the SA Media. Talk shows and phone in’s on the subject are on the rise. We are very keen to expand our media campaign with regards Radio. Community Radio is where its at for millions of South Africans. Please suggest that we speak on your favourite radio station.
Some mornings the mail just breaks our hearts. Another heavy handed bust. More blatant extortion. More fear tactics. More positive urine tests, more unfair dismissals; the list of discrimination towards SA Dagga users is our morning cup of coffee sometimes. People in jail for stompies, people released for a bankie, spouse vindictivenss, mothers having their kids taken away. People charged with 0.0g (yes – 0.0g), absolutely guilty until proved innocent. The Dagga community are such easy targets and such wonderful statistics….in the war against drugs.
There are also stories with a happy ending too. People who transcend their fear and look the prosecutor in the eye. People who learn of the tremendous healing and pain relief properties of the good herb. They choose to break the law to self medicate . In some instances it’s the only thing that works.
The medical applications are staggering – but still there is no research, or at least no independantly funded research, in South Africa. Where would they get the Dagga from to study?
It makes us so exasperated thinking about it.
There is no research except of course for the ongoing South African trials of GW Pharmaceutical’s ‘Sativex’ , their legal Dagga in a mouth spray. You go to jail for growing and GW goes all the way to the bank. Sativex in Europe is a Dagga under the tongue spray costing 3 times more than the black market price for bud. It’s a tincture, anyone could make it….it’s legal for GW.
Insidious isn’t it….. Sign the petition people. Make a difference. Stop this madness and blatant double standards
The worldwide corporate owned media machine has been blasting the airwaves with studies that do get funding, however. They are the ones usually set up with the intention to find something negative. Usually it’s a cleverly contrived meta analysis of some undisclosed data.
Recently a story broke linking teen Dagga use to a drop in IQ. It was front page prohibitionist ‘told you so’ deluxe. Dope makes you dumb etc etc.
We’ve learned to wait ’til the dust settles and find out a bit more about how, what, where, when. Experts from the global cannabis culture responded over the subsequent weekend. The report was full of maybe’s and perhaps’ and correlations; Nothing conclusive and a statistical analysis of only 1000 people.
Anyway, the end of the press release said in a nutshell: smoking as a kid can harm you in later life but it seemed to be safe for adults. It played straight into the legalization movement’s hands. The DC never did condone Dagga use by children, it can be dangerous to a growing mind, – but as the study says:It is alright for adults. We have to look very carefully at how regulation and the age limit will work in post-prohibition SA. In an ideal world, parents should be responsible for their kids but we have known all along that we will have to concede to regulation in terms of an age limit.
Another low swinging sensation was a testicular cancer link to dagga smoking. We didn’t even chase this one. It’s an old media chestnut, cut and paste from the 80’s and 90’s. Cancer of the testes in USA men is .04% of all total cancers. Seems like a heck of a small number considering the exponential use of the good herb in the last decade or two. Where’s all this cancer of the balls then? And women? Guess it’s okay for them to smoke then? Carry on..
Propaganda. The last 10 days certainally brought the prohibition lobby out with guns blazing. Dagga users were more loskop and stupid than ever before AND sterile. Science had just proved it. It just gave the pro Daaga lobby a practice session eloquently fending off the fire and brimstone in the comments sections.
The truth normally does it…simple. Post the backup links. Be polite and stick to your guns.
We get less and less Trolls online and in emails. We used to attract lots of them – stupid loser stoners that we are. We’d like to think that maybe they’re having a reassesment of what they know about the plant and are slowly coming round to the fact that Dagga isn’t a terrible drug and it DOES have a plethora of uses…..It is in fact the panacea.
There it is then.
We do what we can when we can. If we had 6 figures in the trust fund, we could relax and do a heck of a lot more.
Dig deep please – we really have to raise the cash to encrypt the DC site. All your donations are always put to extremely good use.
Sign up for our daily/weekly digest of blog and Facebook posts. They are fully of the most current news, views, science and Dagga facts from around the world. Be informed and politely inform others. Share the info.
Watch our recommended playlists on the DC You Tube channel.
And finally, look yourself in the mirror every day and repeat after us “I am not a criminal”
Onwards and upwards…..
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