[imagesource: Claire Heddles / NPR]

Many moons ago (September 2018), cannabis was decriminalised for personal and private use in South Africa.

Although there is some confusion about how that translates into practice, dealing in and cultivating more than 2 000 cannabis plants is a clear no-go zone.

Ryan McDermid and Domonique Peres, two Durban okes who hopped on the cannabis bandwagon a little too eagerly, have landed themselves in hot water with the law for doing just that.

The two men were convicted and fined in the Durban Regional Court on June 27, per The South African Police Service, with all their plants confiscated in various premises around the South Coast:

The premises were set up as an indoor type cannabis grow house and equipment used to cultivate and dry the plant material was confiscated. As a result the laboratories were successfully dismantled.

The search had begun in January 2018, and involved members from the Hawks’ Port Shepstone Serious Organised Crime Investigation, together with other law enforcement agencies.

The men were charged when found and released on bail, per police spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo:

McDermid was sentenced to pay a fine of R50 000 or three years imprisonment. He was further sentenced to five years imprisonment of which is suspended for five years.

Peres was sentenced for dealing in cannabis. He was sentenced to pay a fine of R20 000.00 or two years imprisonment. The state has forfeited three farms and one motor vehicle to the value of R3 700 000.00.

South Africa is still waiting for clarification on what amount of cannabis constitutes personal and private use exactly.

Private is defined as “to keep, store, transport or be in control of cannabis or a cannabis plant, respectively, in a manner that conceals it from public view”.

As things stand, the draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill lays out these amounts regarding private use:

• Unlimited seeds and seedlings;
• Four flowering plants for those living alone, or eight for homes with two adults or more;
• 600 grams of dried cannabis if you live alone, or 1,2 kilograms in homes with two or more adults;
• 1,2 kilograms dried cannabis or cannabis equivalent per dwelling, which two or more adult persons occupy.

Yeah, McDermid and Peres went well beyond this scope.

Even though the bill hasn’t yet passed yet, and thus those amounts above not yet officially law, one thing is clear: the buying or selling of cannabis remains illegal.

[source:saps]