Durban - Richard's Bay’s “Robin Hood of Cannabis Oil”, who goes by the name of “Bob Greenhash”, has been arrested for smoking cannabis at Virginia Beach with his colleague “Stoned Bones”.
Sheldon Cramer (Greenhash) and Hennie Neveling were remanded at a hearing at the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
They were arrested on Thursday afternoon and taken to Durban North police station. They were released after each paid R500 bail.
Cannabis is illegal for recreational use but a process to consider its products becoming a recognised prescription medicine is at an advanced stage.
Cramer, who has a law degree, said it was 14th time he had been arrested for “weed” and had never been convicted.
“Years ago I was held for four weeks when I couldn’t get bail. Only once did a case reach trial and I was acquitted,” he said.
Dressed in shorts, flip flops, his trademark hat and a T-shirt “made from cotton hemp”, he said he was constantly challenging the system about cannabis being illegal.
“Sometimes it means ending up in jail. We’ve got to somehow create awareness that arresting adults who make a choice to smoke a joint in the privacy of his home is ridiculous,” he said. “There is no victim, no motive. The only victim is the person arrested.”
Pointing to the queue of people arriving for their first appearances, Cramer said: “The courts are jammed with these cases. At least a third will be for dagga.”
Of 72 first appearances on Friday, 21 were indeed for dagga.
Cramer, 50, and Neveling, 41, were warned to appear again on April 3.