"Alcohol and cigarettes are already killing the country, please don’t add more challenges for the youth and poor communities to battle."
This was the appeal of former drug users who have been demonstrating outside the high court in Pretoria since Monday against the legalisation of cannabis, which they believed would impact poorer communities the most if given the green light.
Former dagga user Kwazokhule Gobozi said although he came from a good family he was lured into smoking dagga after friends told him it would help him lose weight.
He said the dagga did the opposite and he gained more.
In an attempt to find a remedy to lose the weight, he said he continued experimenting with harder and newer drugs on the market but they only led him to living on the streets.
“With every new drug my friends would tell me this would help. I lost the weight when I tried heroin. By then I was homeless and sick.
“We know from the moment they legalise it, kids will fall into its never-ending trap.”
The former user said having it restricted to people’s homes and for adults would not eliminate the possibility of children experimenting.
Tshologelo Mahlangu from Bronkhorstspruit said his addiction started with cigarettes in 1998, and he was later introduced to dagga by friends as it was perceived as “cool”.
In college he moved on to mandrax, and in 2009, nyaope.
“Legalising another substance isn’t the way to go. As it is, we are struggling with the effects of alcohol abuse and cigarettes which are also gateway substances. Why would anyone want to add more problems for future generations?”
Meanwhile, inside court, the legal battle was hit with another hurdle as Leah Gcabushe and Doctors for Life legal representative Redge Willis submitted an application to have all annexures submitted by the Fields of Green for All struck off. Gcabushe said submissions and summaries from expert witnesses were not relevant to the trial.
These included the industrial production of dagga and hemp, as well as the uses of medical dagga.
She said 19 days was too much of the court’s time for such a matter to be heard.
Willis added: “We are not going to allow the defendants to flood the court with a barrage of irrelevant information.”
However, the defendants’ advocate, Don Mahon, said all eight legal representatives were afforded 10 months to go through the summaries and submissions to be given by the experts.
Dagga couple Julian Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke said they were upset by the State’s latest application which seemed more like a ploy to delay the trial proceedings.
Clarke said: “To be told we have too much evidence is completely unfair as all representatives were afforded the summaries from September 30, 2016. Who has ever heard a legal representative saying it is not their job to read?
“They could have got one of their juniors to read the expert summaries, but they opted not to. I genuinely believe it is a delaying tactic being used,” she said.
Judge Natvarlal Ranchod said he was hoping to hear all the arguments in this latest application and be able to give his ruling so as to proceed with the trial.
Due to time constraints, Ranchod postponed the matter to this morning.