# summary - Link: https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/dadtbill/summary/ - Published: 2022-09-13T14:14:04+02:00 - Author: dearSA [ Have your say on the draft Bill](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/dadtbill/) List of substances ⌊Loader⌉ Loading... ⌊EAD Logo⌉ Taking too long? ⌊Reload⌉ Reload document | [ ⌊Open⌉ Open in new tab ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13140807/B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) [Download [45.05 KB] ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13140807/B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) Memorandum of objects (summary) ⌊Loader⌉ Loading... ⌊EAD Logo⌉ Taking too long? ⌊Reload⌉ Reload document | [ ⌊Open⌉ Open in new tab ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13140841/Memorandum-B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) [Download [47.88 KB] ](https://cdn.dearsouthafrica.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13140841/Memorandum-B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) ### Articles of interest * Cannabiz-Africa – [CANNABIS INDUSTRY BREAKING NEWS](https://www.cannabiz-africa.com/news-4/unbelievable!-cannabis-still-in-new-drugs-trafficking-bill%3A-public-comment-open-until-16-sept-2022) Promote participation with this QR code poster/flyer – distribute or place at the office ⌊Loader⌉ Loading... ⌊EAD Logo⌉ Taking too long? ⌊Reload⌉ Reload document | [ ⌊Open⌉ Open in new tab ](https://cdn.dearsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13135932/B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) [Download ](https://cdn.dearsafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/13135932/B19-2022_Drugs_and_Drug_Trafficking.pdf) Parliament’s Justice and Correctional Services Portfolio Committee has invited the public to comment on the New Drugs and Drug Trafficking Amendment Bill of 2022, but says all submissions must be in by 16 September 2022. [_Brett Hilton-Barber/Cannabiz Africa_](https://www.cannabiz-africa.com/news-4/unbelievable!-cannabis-still-in-new-drugs-trafficking-bill%3A-public-comment-open-until-16-sept-2022) _5 September 2022 at 12:00:00_ The Justice and Correctional Services Portfoio Committee decided on Friday, 2 September 2022 that it would open up the controversial Drugs and Drug Trafficking Amendment Bill of 2022 for public comment but that it would shrink the time available from three to two weeks. This is in order to try and get the Bill into law within the deadline given to Parliament by Concourt which found the bill to be constitutionally defective. The two year deadline lapses in December 2020 – and public hearings will take place once comment has been received before MP’s can draft the final Bill. Now the public has just 12 days to comment on what is one of the country’s most profound pieces of legislation given the alarming increase in substance abuse, particularly among youngsters, and Government’s stated desire to regulate the commercial trade in cannabis. Given the explosion of new synthetic drug compounds into the illegal market in recent years, MP’s wanted to know how comprehensive the list was, and were alarmed to hear that there had been no input into the Ammendment by either SAHPRA or the Department of Health. They were even more alarmed by the consequences of not getting the Bill passed in time as that could theoretically open up the way for legal dealing in certain hard drugs by the middle of December. There were over 2 300 submissions to the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill which is still due to be retabled in Parliament and passed into law this year. This Bill is two years overdue it’s original Concourt deadline. State lawmakers are not thinking straight and need your help. Please read the new Drug Trafficking Amendments HERE and then mail your considered comments to the Committee secretary, V Ramaano at Drugsbill@parliament.gov.za by no later than the close of business on Friday, 16 September 2022. The most controversial aspect to the Amendment is the continued criminalization of cannabis and cannabis-related substances in Schedule 2 of the proposed Act. This has been identified by Government and private sector stakeholders as the biggest impediment to enabling a regulated cannabis economy to get off the ground. What’s even more astounding is that state regulators had dropped cannabis from Schedule 2 in their early deliberations, and then re-inserted it in order to “maintain the status quo”. Deputy Justice Minister John Jeffrey says he’s taken up the matter with the DoJ’s Director General as he revealed that he had no authority over state law drafters and was uncertain as to whose instruction they were taking. The other disturbing part of the new Bill is that MP’s admitted they had no idea what many of the substances listed in the Schedules actually were. One MP asked whether the Ministry of Health had made any input as to what drugs it wanted included or excluded to which Jeffery said that he believed the last time Health gave any input was in 1992 when the original Drugs Trafficking Act was passed. The 1992 Act was used by Judge Hayley Slinger of the Western Cape High Court in dismissing the Haze Club’s application to have the legality of private grow clubs recognized. Judge Slinger was of the view that while the Drugs Act was in place, the grow club model was illegal until such time as Parliament passed new laws enabling this. ### STATEMENTS FROM OTHER ORGANISATIONS Click on a logo to view. Want to display your organisation’s statement? [Click here. ](https://dearsouthafrica.co.za/dadtbill/summary/ DaDT@dearsouthafrica.co.za?subject=org info for DaDT info page) Close ### Cape Independence Advocacy Group ### Dear Speaker, I am writing to you on behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) and the seventy thousand South Africans who actively follow our work. We wish to comment on the ‘Electoral Commissions Amendment Act, 2021’, which is proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and was published in the Government Gazette on 21 June 2021. Given our mandate, our comments are made in the context of the Western Cape, although we appreciate and respect that the constitutional rights enacted through this bill will rightfully apply to all provinces. This bill is essential to restoring some degree of functional democracy to the voters of the Western Cape and we therefore unreservedly and wholeheartedly endorse it. Through their voting behaviour, Western Cape voters have made it abundantly clear that they do not endorse many of the policy and ideological positions of the South African national government, but are left utterly powerless to resist them because the voters in other South African provinces, who greatly outnumber them, hold starkly different ideological and political opinions. In terms of seeing their democratic will enacted, for the majority of Western Cape voters, the democratic era has not offered much of an improvement over the apartheid era. It is a statistical fact that, since 1994, the majority of Western Cape voters have never been governed by the political party they voted for, and they have no foreseeable prospect of ever being governed by the party they vote for. As such, they cannot be said to have functional democracy. One of the few glimmers of democratic hope Western Cape voters do have, is the provision of Clause 127(2)(f) of the national constitution, and 37(2)(f) of the Western Cape constitution, which allows them, at the discretion of the premier who they elected, to have their voices heard on matters which are important to them, without being drowned out by a national majority who fundamentally hold different views. To deny Western Cape voters this constitutional right would be a very serious infringement of their political rights and freedoms, and would be a clear indication that parliament and the national government are not interested in the constitutional rights and democratic wishes of Western Cape voters. We therefore call upon parliament to pass this bill at the earliest opportunity, and without objection. Yours Faithfully **Phil Craig (On behalf of the Cape Independence Advocacy Group)