SA’s marijuana purveyors fly high
A ‘green gold rush’ is on to cash in on the cannabis market. But with no marijuana-derived medical products having been approved in SA, unscrupulous purveyors may just be blowing smoke
Meet Grant McCulloch, a designer-watch and diamond salesman who is branching out into selling accessories for SA’s well-heeled dope smokers. He’s punting finely milled wooden boxes for storing weed, along with vaporisers and a sleek device that grinds marijuana and is used to fill joints. "You can even use it to grind your rosemary to put on your lamb chops," he says with a perfectly straight face from his exhibition stand at a recent cannabis expo in Cape Town. McCulloch is one of a growing cohort of business people hoping to capitalise on the recent decriminalisation of the personal use of cannabis in SA, effected by a judgment handed down by the Constitutional Court last year. The ruling — that it is no longer illegal for individuals to use cannabis in the privacy of their own homes — has sparked a surge in businesses offering products that target every conceivable step in the mini-supply chain, from the domestic greenhouse to a puff on the porch. There is a flourishing and incre...
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