They beat us to same-sex marriage by over a decade and now they’re going to do the exact same thing with legal weed: South Africa‘s constitutional court has unanimously ruled in favour of the legalisation of cannabis for personal use.
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The case was originally three different cases from people who faced prosecution for using weed, which was then bundled into a single case by the High Court. They argued that the criminalisation of weed use “intrudes unjustifiably into their private spheres“, which the court upheld.
While it’s still illegal to smoke in public and to sell weed, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said in his judgment that it will no longer be a criminal offence “for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in private for his or her personal consumption“.
The court also found that prohibiting people from growing their own weed for personal use is unconstitutional, using the word private a lot of times (“the cultivation of cannabis by an adult in a private place for that adult’s personal consumption in private“).
It has been left up to the government to decide how much weed constitutes an amount for ‘personal use’ in terms of the legality of possession.
Looking forward to weed becoming legal in Australia some time around 2028.
