The Candidates of the Dagga Party who are standing for election in the Local Government Elections, would like to reach out to all Capetonians to invite them to consider a new vision and business plan for Cape Town.
We, who are members of the Cannabis Culture, see the struggles of people for survival, and believe that our society is on the brink of a socio-economic collapse, which is related to a lack of economic resources at grass-roots level, and expensive energy costs, and all the economic dislocations that have been caused caused by the Covid lockdowns.
We have a vision for upliftment and opportunity, and equal participation by everyone in a new business plan, the Cape Town Cannabis Business Plan. We ask you to consider this plan, and if you can see its potential benefit for yourself, and your community, then we will ask you to vote for this plan of Election day, 1 November 2021.
We, of the Cannabis Culture, are keepers of a most beneficial resource called Cannabis, which is also known as Dagga in South Africa. Many people only consider ‘dagga’ to be a drug, and have prejudice against it. They are misled by old State propaganda that has tried to cover up the benefits of Cannabis.
These are the facts about Cannabis that you may not know:
- Cannabis contains medically beneficial cannabinoids in the plant that regulate the signalling of the human endocannabinoid system, which effects homoeostasis (chemical balance) in the human body, and manages metabolism, and manages immune response and inflammation, and manages the apoptosis (dismantling) of damaged or aged cells in the human body, and which promote the secretion of the beneficial hormones oxytocin and melatonin, and which can be used in pain management, and do generally promote health in humans and animals.
- Cannabis is not toxic and has no potential at all for lethal overdose by ingestion or smoking.
- Cannabis provides a highly nutritious, high protein seed for human and animal nutrition featuring all the necessary amino acids for health; and
- A seed oil that has health supplement benefits to humans and animals, and which can be used as a lighting oil, and as a machine oil.
- Cannabis provides the longest and strongest plant fibre on Earth, most suited to the production of durable textiles, building materials, and countless other products;
- After extraction of the fibres, Cannabis sticks provide Cellulose hurds from the insides of the sticks which can be made into carbon-neutral methanol, methane, or bio-plastics, paper, and other products.
- Cannabis stalks can be chopped and mixed with lime and some sand to manufacture building-blocks for the home construction industry;
- Cannabis is a carbon-neutral resource and provides a carbon sequestration service for the cleaning of the atmosphere of excess carbon pumped into the air by the burning of fossil carbon, while converting that carbon to useful economic resources.
- Cannabis can provide a boost to recreational and health tourism opportunities arising from visitors to South Africa who seek to experience Cannabis and Cannabis-based therapies in different areas of South Africa; and
- Cannabis is a very productive, water efficient, drought resistant, weed-resistant crop that matures in a very short period of time (3- 3.5 months, with multiple simultaneous economic benefits, and which can be farmed on marginal agricultural land that cannot support other more sensitive crops.
Now that we know the facts about Cannabis, it is clear that this resource could be used to alleviate poverty and provide great benefit to public health by providing nutrition, energy, and employment in creating value-added products from Cannabis.
The Present State of Cannabis Legalisation
Since the Constitutional Court judgement on 18 September 2018, which allowed the private cultivation and consumption of cannabis by adults, the state has completely failed to produce any legislation recognising the judgement within the two year deadline given by the judgement. The Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill was recently rejected completely as unconstitutional and not in the spirit of the judgement by Civil Society and the Cannabis Culture.
The State’s ‘Cannabis Master Plan’ is allegedly happening behind closed doors, but is only expected to be presented for public comment in 3 years time, and does not presently permit public inputs in its draft process.
In the meantime people who are suffering from poverty and hunger are denied the nutritional and economic benefits of Cannabis. It is estimated that between 11 and 15 million children go to bed hungry in South Africa every night, and many of these children live in Cape Town.
People should have a right to create the world they need and hope to see, and even if national laws prohibit Cannabis, the people of Cape Town can claim their Section 235 Right to Self Determination, and create their own laws and regulations by agreement and declaration, and the national government can only prevent this upon proof of harm to society.
The Dagga Party therefore shall propose a Motion in Cape Town City Council to declare Cape Town as a Section 235 Municipal Cannabis Homeland to unlock the economic potential of Cannabis to alleviate poverty among its citizens, and to provide more economic opportunity to everyone.
Legal Foundation of the People’s Right to Declare a Municipal Cannabis Homeland.
The Constitution of South Africa enables and empowers the Cannabis Culture to exercise a Section 235 Right to Self Determination regarding the Cannabis issue. .
Section 235. Self-determination
“The right of the South African people as a whole to self-determination, as manifested in this Constitution, does not preclude, within the framework of this right, recognition of the notion of the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity in the Republic or in any other way, determined by national legislation.”
This is the key phrase:
“recognition of the notion of the right of self-determination of any community sharing a common cultural and language heritage, within a territorial entity”….
So the Dagga Party Candidates in Cape Town, Plettenberg Bay, Knysna, and Oudtshoorn, shall strive to declare a Section 235 Municipal Cannabis Homeland, which shall determine its own Cannabis policies in these municipalities, and shall also determine its own public health response to Covid, and promote economic and legislative autonomy for these areas to the maximum extent possible. We ask all members of the Cannabis Culture, and all who can see the economic potential of this plan, to support the Dagga Party at the ballots on 1 November 2021.
Regulation of a New Cannabis Economy in a Municipal Cannabis Homeland.
These proposals are put forward to enable an equitable, careful establishment of a Cannabis economy that operates for public benefit to the maximum extent possible, with an emphasis on local control of local resources, and maximum possible return of benefits to the local communities who are producers of the resource.
All who wish to participate as producers in a Cannabis economy would be required to become members of a local, ward-based Cannabis Co-operative which is incorporated to promote Community and establish a constructive economic entity in every community, centred around the Cannabis tree, to enable efficient co-investment toward technology and activities that value-add the raw crop into valuable products before sale on the broader market.
Private sales of reasonable amounts would be permitted on the basis of Private, Common Law interaction between informed consenting adults. The proactive preventative policing and prosecution of Cannabis by the SAP would be ordered by the municipality and the public to stand down. Large consignments of raw material would be required to be shipped under the waybill of the Cannabis co-operative that produced the material.
Growers would firstly grow for their own private adult needs as their fundamental right in terms of the judgement in Case 108/17 CCT (Prince, Rubin, Acton and others vs Minister of Justice and others), but all biomass not used for personal use could be collected by the co-operative of which the grower is a member, and collectively value-added, with a share in the profits obtained returned among the members of the co-operative, according to their contributions.
The local Cannabis co-operative would liaise from a position of empowerment with the broader corporate markets and with the state in the rendering of agreed taxes, levies etc, and would co-ordinate with the Cannabis City of Cape Town in maximising the benefits of the Cannabis plant to society..
The Cannabis City will enable the mass cultivation of Cannabis for industry by citizen participants around all sewerage works using treated grey water and improved rainwater harvesting, to the maximum extent possible.
The Cannabis City will implement Municipal Energy Projects at the sewerage works to produce biogas (methane) from sewerage and plant material, and Cannabis biomass, and would integrate this with concentrating solar thermal technology and bird-friendly wind power to produce electricity that is cheaper than that produced by ESKOM’s distant, polluting coal-fired power stations,
The Cannabis City will also enable urban agricultural initiatives, in partnership with the people, and maximise the reuse of treated grey water for suitable agriculture, to return the economic benefit of that water back to the economy as useful biomass.
The Cannabis City will enable the licensing of Coffee shops, pubs, restaurants and tourism venues to provide Cannabis to clients and appropriate spaces to consume Cannabis in such a venue,
Any Cannabis Homeland Municipality with rural areas will also enable Cannabis tasting routes (similar to Wine Routes), Cannabis-related Festivals, and safe access to Cannabis by tourists.
Any levies and taxes paid from the new Cannabis industry will be reinvested by the Cannabis City into the area of the municipality, and these taxes shall not be extracted by outsider interests. All taxes levied from Cannabis sales must, to the extent necessary, be for the ultimate benefit of that community where it was sold.
Owners of Cannabis-related venues must reside in the same ward as their venue, or venues within an area shall be collectively run by the local Cannabis co-operative for that area, to the equitable benefit of the members of the Cannabis co-operative. The reason for this is to prevent the grabbing of ‘turf’ by large and crooked operators, while others don’t get a chance. This is also to prevent the extortion of ‘protection’ money by gangsters from legitimate venues within a community, because if they try that, they are up against the entire community who has a business interest in that venue.
The establishment of a cannabis economy has to be a process that starts at ground level, and is carefully implemented to ensure that benefits are maximised, and harms are minimised at ground level first. Then the Cannabis economy can be gradually built up into a more complex economy. The requirement of Local Ownership of Cannabis enterprises, in conjunction with membership of a local Cannabis co-operative, is one way to transform desperate, chaotic, impoverished collection of individuals that are only policed, into conscious, functional, co-operative, self-regulating communities centred around the Cannabis tree, for all to learn to do ethical business with this resource.
The Cannabis co-operatives must be empowered to process and value-add their crop within their area, before selling value added products to the global and corporate market, to maximise the benefits of the Cannabis grown in any area,
Please vote for the Dagga Party in the Local Government Elections 2021, (Cape Town, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Oudtshoorn) to create your new Municipal Cannabis Homeland, and participate in the Dagga Party’s New Cannabis Business Plan for municipalities.
Fields of Green for ALL in your Municipal Cannabis Homeland!!
Written by: Jeremy Acton
Published by: Cannabispromoter.com
Albert Henry Sean Holder