The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development is the lead partner in the National Cannabis Master Plan. The NCMP has prioritized the development of a local hemp industry as one of the key drivers in unlocking a new cannabis economy. And yet DALLRD has gazetted regulations that undermine a potential hemp industry from the get-go. Like, what’s going on?
Cannabiz Africa
30 September 2022 at 15:00:00
Why do you think DALRRD has ignored the advice of the CSIR, the Agricultural Research Council, Friends of Hemp SA and every single other hemp industry stakeholder who have politely pointed out that it’s unrealistic to set THC levels in hemp at 0,2% because local climatic conditions have a “THC spike” and that a 1% limit would be more feasible?
Either they know what they are doing or they don't. And the answer to either is unsettlng.
The THC limit fiasco in hemp is just the latest of a series of alarming developments regarding the development of a cannabis economy as Government loses cohesion on a number of policy levels.
The appointment of former Trade and Industry deputy director general Garth Strachan to the position of a cannabis advisor to the President without the requisite powers to shift policy, is a joke. Strachan, who’s now over 100 days into his job, is in the unenviable position of having achieved zero impact and is witnessing cannabis reform go backwards.
And actually, what’s the point of having him there at all if he’s so ineffectual?
On taking on his job at the beginning of May 2022, his priority was two-fold:
• Fix the regulatory environment for a commercial cannabis framework, and
• Sort out the right THC levels for hemp;
As of 30 September 2022: