LEGALISED MARIJUANA.....CHILD AND YOUTH CARE IN SOUTH AFRICA

No sweat to find a theme for this weeks blog!  There was a blaze of social media posts and comments on the recent Constitutional Court ruling that legalised marijuana (cannabis, dagga, weed) for household use....."weed is legal in South Africa."....."Holy smoke!" "weedsellers are now florists".......the plants can now be grown domestically...from what I could gather from the social media posts, 12 plants can be grown. Domestic use quantity for smoking can be carried privately. 

Judge Raymond Zondo's Constitutional Court ruling went like this;

Some extracts: 
" The personal use of dagga is not a criminal offence."

"The right to privacy is not confined to a home or private dwelling. It will not be an offence for an adult person to use or be in possession of cannabis in a private place " (my italics).

"This judgement does not specify how many grams of cannabis can a person use or have in private.".........(the legislature will have to consider a quantity that  does not constitute undue harm) my brackets.

What's good about this judgement? Some say that the drug dealers who sell dagga, sell other stuff as well. What they are reputed to do is to introduce young people to harder drugs until a young person gets hooked. Then they kick in with the demand to pay. The dealers are accused of using dagga among young persons as a "gateway"  to the harder stuff. By legalising dagga for domestic use, they say, it could be possible that the dealer is left out.

In terms of the Constitutional Court ruling. it's still illegal to deal. It all depends on how much is being carried. The police have to make a decision.

BUT THEN:   I heard this twice from different sources. An Anti-drug action group said that legislation won't close down the drug houses. They said that the police have a monthly target figure for the arrest of persons in possession. The police they said, would not allow the drug houses to close They will still be protected to ensure that their arrest targets can be met. In fact, they argued, more street corner arrests for possession are likely.....their comment..." Moe people in jail....more children denied parents".??

The big argument in support,
Dagga is less harmful to health than alcohol or cigarettes. It is said to have beneficial health benefits, properties that fight or reduce the growth of cancer cells, is safer in the lungs and slows down the onset and process of Parkinsons and Alzheimer's. There appears some evidence to support this.

What are the negatives for young people?
Alcohol and cigarettes have an age restriction for purchase. It's 18 years. One our leaders in South African child and youth care posted a pic of the dagga plant on facebook with the comment: "for your own home only and not under 18". I queried whether he got the age restriction for purchase of dagga from the Constitutional Court ruling. His reply was "No, that came from my desk". I searched the judgement for an age restriction on the sale of dagga and couldn't  find one......only "for adult use". 

I'm not sure what it means for children age 13/14 to buy dagga. Presumably they will smoke it. My experience in a residential care facility was that the boys, when high acted out in a state of euphoria coupled with the loss of fear . A sense of being indestructible.... "if I jump off the roof.... I will fly!" .. type of thing. It's not called  "giggle weed" for nothing. Also there was a belief that physical prowess is improved. I don't know if that is so.
I have this possibly unfounded view that it's not wise or clever for a 13/14 year old to smoke weed, especially at school.
What do we really know about children and marijuana?
Little. As an illegal substance our researchers say that research has been slowed down or made almost impossible. Some research in the USA States in which it is legalised, show scanty evidence of any negative effects on fetal development of the baby in-utero. One research exposed the brain cells of mice and then living human brain cells to marijuana. They found evidence of a negative effect on aspects of neurological development which could affect cognitive functioning and problem solving into adulthood.
What if children smoke it? One statistic I found said that an estimated 61% of children in South Africa had tried it by the age 14....even if just as an experiment.
  Only recently a father spoke about his son who started out on marijuana at age 14. Graduated to nyope (wonga) and whose acting out was a risk to himself, property and others. So some social media comment is that with the legalisation of dagga will come a mindset that the marijuana mixes, like nyope are now legal.

Another concern is the effect that smoking marijuana may have on driving and so on motor vehicle accidents as this could well have an effect on children as passengers or pedestrians. The American states reported a nil effect. Alcohol related accidents ..yes, but the effect of alcohol and marijuana use when driving increaded the accident rate significantly.

Social Service Professionals are putting out different but strongly worded messages about the legalisation of dagga in South Africa. Some want the field to protest, to publish position statements. They want South Africa to know about the number of cannabis related cases to whom they have to provide interventive services. 
Some say that we now don't have to feel like criminals when we recreate or take marijuana based medication.

Right now, it all sounds somewhat dis-jointed!