The judgment by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo regarding the use of marijuana, or dagga as it is commonly known, refers:
I contend that the Constitutional Court has miserably erred and has failed to protect South African citizens, a country already struggling to manage and control alcohol and drug abuse, by ruling that it is legal for adults to cultivate and smoke marijuana in their homes.
The court’s decision on marijuana is unacceptable and poses a threat to our future and the future of our children. We need to save our nation; we need to break the high rates of drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, school violence and the high dropout rate from learning institutions.
Legalising marijuana for personal use is disingenuous and would just give people more reasons to get high. Smoking marijuana has many dangerous and serious side-effects and health consequences and many drug abuse therapists believe that marijuana is a gateway drug, which encourages the use of more dangerous and more addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
This will result in more resources being needed to treat drug addiction and will deprive other, more important healthcare programmes of funding.
I believe legalising marijuana for personal use is not just impractical, it’s an immoral and an erroneous judgment.
As parliamentarians will now contemplate changing the laws to conform with the open-ended landmark judgement, they would do well to remember the considerable distress dagga will cause in communities and families.
* Mohamed Saeed, Pietermaritzburg
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.