After 14 grueling days in court in August 2017 The Trial of the Plant ground to a halt. Days of filibustering and protracted cross examination of our expert witnesses led to the trial being rendered “part heard”.
The rest of 2017 and going into 2018 was a time of great uncertainty until the Judge Davis et al handed down their judgement in the Prince / Acton case in the Western Cape High Court. We joined as co-applicants in the state’s appeal to the Constitutional Court and, as they say, the rest is history. Nobody can ever take away from us the fact that the prohibition of the personal use and cultivation of Cannabis in private spaces has been unconstitutional since Nelson Mandela signed our world class constitution into law on 10 December 1996.
We have no doubt that the evidence from The Trial of the Plant was influential on the judges’ decision even though the judgement stated that it was not fully considered. Some may say that we have got the relief that we seek but we beg to differ. Firstly we, as The Dagga Couple and our co-plaintiff medical Cannabis patient, Clifford Thorpe, are all facing “dealing” charges and the judgement made it very clear that no trade is allowed (yet). However, running another month long trial is complicated and very expensive. After lengthy debate with our phenomenal legal team at Schindlers Attorneys, we wrote to the Deputy Judge President, Judge Ledwaba, who has been managing our case since 2015, requesting that we postpone the trial until after the legislature has made their decisions around the new laws and regulations.
If the legal regulation of Cannabis in South Africa is not in line with our constitution, Bill of Rights and the will of the people, we will go straight back to Pretoria and do it all again with our brilliant legal team and world class Cannabis experts. One could say that we have a gun to the government’s heads!
If the need arises, we will gather our experts to give their evidence before parliament.
Our request for the lengthy postponement was favourably received by Judge Ledwaba but he indicated in a letter that it is too early to apply for a date now. He suggested we apply for a date during 2020 as the legislature has until September 2021 to carry out the order of the Constitutional Court.
Right now in South Africa it is VERY busy in Cannabis-land! Everyone is running around trying to be first at this and first at that. All we can say is that we seem to be the only organisation that is running around worrying what the new law is going to look like. You will hear our opinions about everything in the end but this will ONLY be within context of making the voice of civil society heard. Loud & Clear. We are South Africa’s first Cannabis Legalisation Non-Profit Company and that is enough for us. We have a job to do… Fields of Green for ALL is still some time (and a whole lot of hard work) away…
Thanks for your ongoing support!
Myrtle, Jules, William, Charl & Joanne
Thanks. Getting the laws and policies right is everything!
South Africa would be lost without this movement, VIVA Fields of Green FOR ALL… not for one Monopoly, but for everyone especially the South Africans who will benefit from job-creation. Thank you for keeping true to your Vision and for fighting for ALL OF US!!! “Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams
Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green” <3
Thanks for that reply, Myrtle – didn’t Jev notice that you said “we SEEM to be…”. However, my big gripe is that the liberation has hardly started and already the rot is setting in. Some idiot from KZN or Gauteng (I was too busy choking in my cookie to pay attention) is already producing “cannabis beer” with ineffectual cannabis seeds as the magic ingredient. And he has registered a trade name for his product with “Durban Poison” as a prominent part of it. Soon he will take anyone to court who dares to sell Durban Poison to the general public. I hate these false opportunists who have no love (or respect) for the herb.
There are many opinions about the “Durban Poison Beer” but we prefer to remain neutral on the issue. It is a crazy time right now and one has to keep a careful balance. The most important questions is: Is harm being done? I don’t think so. It could be seen as dodgy marketing but that is opinion, not fact. Everyone needs to direct their energies in a way that is beneficial for all so I hope that Durban Poison Beer is employing people and paying their taxes. Outside that, there is too much important stuff to do to waste time on the nitty gritty of people’s crazy schemes. Thanks for your comments, it’s all part of the bigger debate.
You “guys’ are doing a phenomenal job. Thank you for sharing it. Happy days!
You guys rock.
“The only organisation?”
Are you for real? EVERYONE is looking at that.
Please don’t try to get ahead of yourselves.
We have not seen one document issued by anyone putting forward their proposals for what the new law & regulations need to look like. Looking forward to seeing people’s ideas on paper but so far no-one has done that – except us. We have to get ahead of ourselves otherwise we’ll end up like Canada. Yes, we are for real. Everyone is certainly looking at that but has anyone done the hard work of putting ideas down on paper for the public to comment? If so, please share with us.
Hi,
Great work you guys are doing. Very Grateful for everything achieved so far, I think most people don’t realise what an ordeal and huge task it is that you took on.
My friends and myself would like to contribute to the debate as to what we think the future laws should look like, can you please tell us where and how to submit our view point and ideas.
We as in cannabis users or supporters need to show the government and the rest of society that there firstly is a lot of us and across all social and racial lines, that we are normal people with jobs and families and not druggies like the conservatives like to label us.
So please let us know how we can actively contribute to making this happen.
Thanks so much Johan, it’s been a helluva ride! You can comment on our dedicated Outcomes page. https://www.fieldsofgreenforall.org.za/desired-outcomes/ You can comment as many times as you like as the form that you fill in requires you to comment section by section.
Outside that, I really need help expanding the discussion document. I have mountains of documents that need sorting and summarising. Please let us know if you or any of your friends would have fun helping me with this?! Pls let us know via the website contact form.
Thanks for the support!
You are legends
Thank you for your amazing contribution! We as a country will be forever in your debt.
Thank you guys!!