Fake news is not new. As Californians voted in the recent presidential election, they also, by approving Proposition 64, prised open the long dead fingers of J Harry Anslinger, whose “fake news” in the Hearst-owned yellow press had consigned the cannabis plant family to illegality for more than 80 years.
As recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in the world’s sixth-largest economy, this sordid tale of misrepresentation and racial scaremongering by a powerful American elite should at last have a happy ending.
In South Africa, if the ANC really wants to take a stand against entrenched racial prejudice, instead of persecuting twittering students and struggling real-estate agents, it should simply remove all restrictions on the growing and use of dagga. Alcohol has been the European social relaxant of choice; dagga the African one.
It was the Wragge Commission in 1885 that identified dagga as threatening the work rate of Indian cane workers.
Making dagga illegal has emasculated African culture.
It’s rhythm has been lost and its people alienated.
The Rastafarians are right. Dagga is the African redemption, it’s their song of freedom.
The Eastern Cape may be one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, but it has, as the locals well know, ideal conditions for growing both high and low THC strains of cannabis, sativa and indica.
As dagga returns to public favour, the Eastern Cape has a unique but brief opportunity to be the leading producer and developer of medical cannabis-based products.
These combat cancers, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and depression.
The low THC strains, otherwise known as European hemp, offer fabrics, paper and building products, not to mention green fuels and plastics.
Henry Ford, back in the late 1930s, experimented on the use of European hemp to make rust-proof, light and incredibly strong body panels for his Model T. Think of the job creation opportunities that this new industry would create.
The old Transkei lies on the coast at the tail end of the Drakensberg Mountains. Imagine a veritable Honnah Lee, where sun-starved Europeans could flock in their winter time, via the underused airports of East London and Mthatha, to shake off their cares and relax in the land of Puff the Magic Dragon.
The tasting tours, the jazz and reggae music, the beautiful scenery and warm beaches. They simply wouldn’t want to leave this prime destination.
All that’s needed to make this vision explode is the legalisation of dagga, land title for small farmers, and concerted efforts to keep greedy officials, politicians and tribal chiefs from trying to take over.