If you think that dagga is a dangerous narcotic, then you have been duped through propaganda. Dagga is as traditional to SA as biltong, boerebeskuit and witblits. It fascinated JV Riebeeck and missionaries extolled its virtues. It grows like a weed, is medicinal in its natural form with a lower potential for harm to self and society than sugar. Supported by science (endocannabinoid system), legal in 24 USA states with 200 million US citizens having access to it as medicine (endocannabinoid system) + populations of 11 other countries. Deaths from opioid overdoses has also dropped by up to 25% in states with legal dagga.
The current ‘war on drugs’ is a broken system. It’s a war on people and does little to protect anyone from substance abuse. It’s the same mentality that was used to justify enforcing the mixed marriages act, where the offender is also the victim. A perverse incentive to put people into prison. From physical prison to social prison with a subsequent criminal record.
You will find plenty of peer reviewed studies, medical professionals (Joycelyn Elders, Andrew Weil, Lester Grinspoon, Deborah Malka, Sanjay Gupta, Abrams, Suzanne Sisley, Denis Petro, Ethan Russo, Uma Dhanabalan, Jeffrey Block, Bonni Goldstein, Juan Sanchez-Ramos..) who support dagga as a therapeutic plant.
In SA, the Bobby Greenhash foundation PTY is supplying dagga oil to people suffering with terminal diseases. Their testimonials to the healing power of dagga is worth a read. The SA central drug authority (CDA) has also called for the decriminalization of dagga and a recent study they commissioned, concluded that dagga kills cervical cancer.
Vilifying dagga and then using that stance to ‘protect our children’ is pointless. Rather fact based solutions (science) focusing on harm reduction through healthcare and education, as recommended by the SA substance abuse experts, S Kelley and Quintin Van Kerken.
Better that control of dagga is removed from the streets and regulated from behind the counter through legalization. This removes the ‘taboo label’, enabling people who need help to seek it, without the fear of being arrested.
Dagga is a therapeutic plant. Time we treat it that way.
“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.” – Carl Sagan
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no one is villifying dagga. dagga already has a bad name and that is because it is harmful.
dagga is by no means a safe or soft drug or a medicine. and here again we have medical applications being used to support recreational use.
Firstly, there is no such thing as ‘medical dagga’. This is a phrase coined by pro-leglizationists in an effort to muster sympathetic support from the public.
Smoking ANY substance, whatever it may be is harmful to the human body. FULL STOP. other methods of ingestion also introduce chemicals in dagga that are not beneficial to the body. This is accepted medically worldwide.
Let’s consider medical applications. however we have a major problem in the fact that people are claiming that they smoke dagga for medical reasons which for the reason stated above is impossible.
If chemicals in the cannabis plant are isolated tested and made into medications proven safe for public consumption, then perhaps. and this must be done through the traditional processes.
Some groups (such as yours i believe) of people are pushing for legalization under the medical banner have even stated that their aim in doing so is to eventually have dagga legalized for recreational use.
And many who want dagga legalized for medical applications are attempting to bypass traditional channels altogether! Any potential medications must pass through scientific testing, the Medicines Control Council and so forth.
If the matter is handled responsibly, recreational use is separated completely from the issue (which of course it won’t be as that’s what you guys are actually pushing for) and traditional routes for new medications are adhered to and decisions based on science and medicine and not opinion, emotion and anecdotal evidence then perhaps.
So you see the problem in all of this. in fact, those legitimately looking for help in the form of these potential medications are being harmed by the very people pushing their campaign!
There is no such thing as ‘medical dagga’ in of itself. This is just a phrase coined by pro legalizationists to give the impression that the whole dagga plant, which they in fact want to smoke to get high, can be used as medicine which is completely false.
they are trying to push through the smoking of dagga recreationally on the back of potential medical applications.
So no, dagga is not medicine at all. Can some chemicals in dagga be used to make medicines, perhaps. But this is a matter of science and should be handled through traditional channels and is not a matter of opinion, emotion or personal belief.