Parliament has final word on landmark dagga ruling
Parliament has announced it has to wait until the Constitutional Court has confirmed the Western Cape High Court's landmark judgment on private dagga use before it can make any changes to the law, notes a News24 report. ‘If the two laws mentioned (the Drug Trafficking Act and the Medicines Control Act) have been found to be unconstitutional, then the Constitutional Court would have to confirm the judgment before Parliament can act,’ a spokesperson said.
He noted that the state could also appeal the ruling of the judges. Earlier, Judge Dennis Davis handed down a unanimous judgment that found that it was an infringement of the constitutional right to privacy to ban the use of dagga by adults at home.
Dagga was not legalised, but Davis and Judges Nolwazi Boqwana and Vincent Saldanha gave Parliament two years to correct laws that relate to dagga so that the constitutional right to privacy for an adult at home is not infringed upon.
They also ordered that the right to privacy may be used as a defence by those charged with possession, cultivation or use of dagga in the privacy of their own home. Parliament’s spokesperson said that once the Constitutional Court confirmed the judgment, Parliament then had to rectify the defects the judges identified in the laws. He said there were several options for doing so, including dealing with the defects in terms of the Medical Innovation Bill currently before Parliament, Parliament introducing a new Bill; or the executive introducing a new Bill.
The ruling allows for the possession, cultivation and use dagga at home, for private use, says another News24 report. Dagga Party leader Jeremy Acton and Rastafarian Garreth Prince and 18 plaintiffs applied for the Criminal Prohibition of Dagga Act (sections 4b and 5c), read with certain sections of Part III of Schedule 2 of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, to be declared unconstitutional. They submitted that the laws prohibiting dagga use are unfair, discriminatory, outdated, and applied disproportionately to black users.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
