South African Marijuana Legalization May Become Medical-Only

By Russ Belville

Last year, a member of the South African Parliament named Mario Oriani-Ambrosini proposed the Medical Innovation Bill. This law would legalize the commercial, industrial, and medical applications of dagga, the local term for cannabis. Mr. Oriani-Ambrosini died of cancer, but his bill lives on in the Parliament’s Health Committee, where members of the INKATHA Freedom Party are asking that the commercial and industrial regulations be deleted so the bill focuses only on medical marijuana.

The INKATHA Freedom Party is a minor party that collected just 2.4 percent of the vote in the 2014 elections, holding just ten of the 400 seats in a Parliament governed by the African National Congress with 249 seats.

The next leading party, the Democratic Alliance with 89 seats, has also called for a medical-only bill. Its health minister, Wilmot James, has called the current bill “over-reaching”. Though Mr. Oriani-Ambrosini said he lived longer than...

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