When your mate shouts about how ‘weed is now legal, man’, it’s important to offer a correction.

Marijuana (or cannabis, or dagga, or zol, or whatever you want to call it) has been decriminalised for personal and private use in South Africa, which is something quite different.

The decriminalisation has also existed in something of a grey area, because exactly what constitutes ‘personal and private use’ has not been legally defined.

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Our first look at potential numbers comes via the Regulation of Cannabis Bill, drafted by the ministry of justice, with reporting below via the Mail & Guardian:

South Africans will be allowed to possess up to 600g of dried cannabis in the privacy of their homes for personal use, but can forget about selling their stash legally any time soon if the new cannabis Bill is passed in its present form.

The [Bill] will provide guidelines as to how much cannabis people can grow and possess, but continues to outlaw trading in the medicinal and recreational herb…

The Bill allows possession of up to 600g of dried cannabis per person, or a maximum of 1200g per household with two or more adults living in it…

Public possession is pegged at a maximum of 60g of dried cannabis, but public consumption remains illegal.

That means you cannot legally sell your crop, just to spell it out, although you can carry up to 60g in public without freaking out, as long as you don’t light up.

The Bill lays out that selling or buying large quantities that quality as a ‘traffickable’ amount can land you up to 10 years in the slammer.

Amounts that are more than the 600g individual amount allowed, but less than what can be considered ‘traffickable’, could see you jailed for between two and six years.

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Following the landmark September 2018 ruling that decriminalised for personal and private use, the government was given two years to create the legal framework around the decision.

Those wheels have now been set in motion:

A draft of the Bill was sent to the national director of public prosecutions, the department of health, treasury and other affected departments in October for comment, with a cut-off deadline of January 31.

It will go to Cabinet for approval before being tabled in Parliament and put out for public comment, ahead of a September deadline imposed by the court.

I guess we now wait and see.

Just to ensure that everyone is on the same page, that 600g amount, as well as the 60g of public possession, have not become law, as the Bill can still be amended before being passed.

Don’t get ahead of yourself just yet – patience is a virtue.

[source:mg]