Amendments to Schedule 6 of the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965 were gazetted and came into force on 6 September 2024. 

Amongst other provisions, they allow for “the cultivation, possession and use of raw or processed cannabis plant material” in specific circumstances, thereby loosening SAHPRA’s long-standing control over cannabis.

Read the Amendment to the Medicines Act here.

Ultimately the Government seeks to redefine cannabis as an agricultural crop rather than a narcotic and that all decisions pertaining to cannabis for non-medical use will be transferred from the Health Department. The intention of the amendment, according to SAHPRA’s presentation to Parliament earlier this year was:  

“to add reference to tetrahydrocannabinol in Schedule 6 except in raw cannabis plant material cultivated and possessed in accordance with a permit issued in terms of the Plant Improvement Act of 2018 and processed products manufactured from such material, intended for agricultural or industrial purposes including the manufacture of consumer items or products which have no pharmacological action or medicinal purpose; or when raw cannabis plant material is cultivated, possessed, and consumed by an adult, in private for personal consumption.”

The amendments are meant to have coincided with the removal of cannabis from the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act of 1994, but this has not yet been gazetted.

The step is an important one because it is ultimately the Presidency’s considering a plan to classify all cannabis as “industrial”, thereby bypassing the THCs restrictions on hemp, and allowing a “whole plant” approach to cannabis reform.

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