The world won’t end if dagga is legalised

tHWIt would be easy to get hot under the collar about Myrtle Clark and Julian Stobbs and the fact that they are breaking the law by continuing to smoke dagga.

Not only that, they are going to the extent of heading to the constitutional court soon to have the prohibition lifted on marijuana.

But what they are saying, and the action they are taking, cuts to the very heart of where South Africa is as a democracy … and just how far we are prepared to let freedom go.

At the core of arguments from abolitionists like Clark and Stobbs is the proposal that, as long as what people are doing does not harm others, then they should be allowed to continue doing it.

And, to be honest, we can’t see anything harmful in mature, consenting adults indulging in a puff of their favourite relaxant in the privacy of their own home.

We are aware that the drug is outlawed, but we are equally aware that there is compelling evidence of the pain-relieving properties of the weed, especially in pain-wracked cancer sufferers.

Surely it would not threaten the foundations of our society to allow controlled use of the product by responsible adults … and to allow it for pain treatment.