Maverick Citizen: Constitutional Court: UK man in court to have SA’s prohibited drugs list declared unconstitutional

Jason Smit is sought in the UK for dagga-related crimes, but attempts to extradite him might finally push Parliament to make a decision on the ongoing criminalisation of the cannabis plant in South Africa. He already partially won the first round of a legal challenge against the South African Drugs Act, but now his legal team is pushing for the schedules outlawing a number of drugs, including dagga, to be declared unconstitutional.

Bassett explained that the British police searched Smit’s Penrith home in England and two units he was renting in industrial estates close-by during a raid in March 2008. In his house, they found dried dagga and a vacuum cleaner which had been adapted to dry it. In the units, they found 1,295 dagga plants growing under heat lamps, with an estimated street value of between £57,185 and £95,983 . He is linked to the items in the units with 13 fingerprint matches.

“They consequently can have no effect on the operation of the double criminality requirement in the present matter, because the offences for which the applicant’s extradition is sought arise from his large-scale commercial cultivation and possession of dagga for commercial purposes.” Katz argued that without the schedule, prohibitions on the use, possession or dealing-in of drugs would be meaningless. “Indeed, absent the schedules, there would be no crime,” he argued. He added that by giving the powers to draw up schedules to the minister, public participation in the process was cut-off in its entirety.

He added that as a result, Parliament has never needed to consider whether dagga ought to be decriminalised or legalised, despite calls from civil society groups to do so.

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