Given what deputy judge president Raymond Zondo is hearing at the eponymous commission on state capture, it is ironic that he should be the one to hand down the unanimous judgment legalising the private use of cannabis. Presumably, he could use a toke. Zondo’s judgment brings SA somewhat in line with international trends, which are recognising that consuming small amounts of cannabis is generally harmless, and the effect of a ban is counterproductive and invasive. One of the tricky aspects of the judgment is that essentially the same issue has come up before the Constitutional Court in Prince v President of the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope in 2002. In this case, Prince II, as it is known, the court refused to contemplate unbanning pot. The apex court’s judgment sought to distinguish Prince II from the current case, which was decided on the basis of the constitution’s protection of privacy. Prince II involved the question of whether the laws prohibiting the use of cannabis we...
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