Members of the crowd said that it would be the end of law and order in the country if it was legalised.

Members of the crowd said that it would be the end of law and order in the country if it was legalised.

Pretoria - A crowd has gathered outside the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria to protest against the legalisation of dagga.





Legalise it will be theme for the next month at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria when the pungent green plant known as dagga or cannabis will again come under the spotlight.





Judge Natvarlal Ranchod will hear the evidence of a host of experts called in by the so-called “dagga couple”, Myrtle Clarke and her partner Julian Stobbs.





They are, through the organisation Field of Green for All, calling for legislation banning the use of cannabis in all its forms, to go up in smoke.





Judge Dennis Davis issued a judgment earlier this year in the Western Cape High Court in which he declared as invalid legislation banning the use of this plant by adults in the privacy of their own homes.





He gave Parliament 24 months in which to change laws that were inconsistent with the constitutional right to privacy.





But the dagga couple’s legal bid, which starts today, goes much further. Clarke said Judge Davis’s judgment ticked the first box, but the fight to legalise cannabis had just begun.





Trading in cannabis will be one of the aspects the couple will fight for. Clarke said it does not make sense to be able to use it when you cannot sell or grow it.





“To have it, you must grow or buy it.”





They will call nine experts to testify on a range of topics concerning cannabis. The topics to be covered over the next 19 days will range from the healing powers of cannabis, to its cultural, historical, economic and traditional aspects.





“We are ready for this battle. We have in fact been ready for a long time, and we are confident that we have a good case. We have all our bases covered,” Clarke said.





To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video People protest against legalising dagga outside the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.





The government, however, is set on opposing the application and is expected to call its own witnesses to counter the couple’s arguments.





The couple’s legal bid has been on the cards for about six years – since they were arrested on cannabis related charges. Their criminal trial was put on hold pending the outcome of this legal challenge.





They said that they have been using the plant for decades, and that as upstanding and tax-paying citizens, it was their right to do so.





By comparing legislative developments, the prohibition of cannabis could no longer be justified in South Africa, they argued.





The aim of their legal challenge was to educate the public and the authorities about the use of cannabis, to prove that it was not harmful, they said.





In cancer patients, dagga is said to reduce nausea and vomiting, to stimulate the appetite and to reduce pain.



