How to make the South African cannabis market more inclusive

While the relatively new legal cannabis industry is flourishing in South Africa, the question arises of who exactly will benefit from its expected exponential growth.

Dr Simon Howell is a Criminologist at UCT’s Centre of Criminology, and he explains the various factors involved.

"The licensing system is essentially the biggest part of the contestation around whether cannabis production is open to locals or open to rural farmers, because that licensing system costs money and the licences are quite expensive – and there's quite a lot of technical expertise needed to obtain those licences.

"It is possible now to commercially grow cannabis for various purposes... but the bigger projects have essentially been owned by external parties, so companies from Canada and the like.

There's been very little feedback into the local market."

Howell says small rural farmers have not yet seen much benefit from this industry. He says the other consideration is what the purpose of growing it is.

"If you're going to export it then cannabis is subject to a whole raft f regulations and trade technicalities... so while it's possible to grow, it's very difficult to export.

"If it stays in the local market, then what are you going to do with it? There's been a rapid growth in outlets selling cannabis-related products... but an extraction process is required to move a raw product into something that can be put into a cream or the like... that takes technical expertise and money."

The unclear laws around decriminalisation are another potential hurdle, leading to inconsistent policing of the industry.

Howell says in order to address these issues of access and inclusion, local farmers need to be able to get their product into the market without having to jump through too many regulatory hoops.

To listen to Dr Simon Howell in conversation with 702's Gugs Mhlungu, click the audio below: