There are many reasons for legalising dagga, not the least of which is the environmental disaster unfolding in the Drakensberg.

Near Murder in Paradise

I don’t do the type of journalism that incites the subjects of my stories to particularly want to kill me. But I was nearly murdered in paradise by the very people I thought my writing was intended to help.

It happened because I’m a ferocious believer that consensual crimes are stupid. This is especially so when it comes to dagga, which is illegal when other more potent drugs like alcohol and nicotine are legitimate. And let me state right up front that I don’t particularly like marijuana as it seldom does anything for me other than give me a headache.

I was stupid enough at the time to believe that my views on the legalisation of dagga would be welcomed by the growers and dealers. That quaint notion was nothing but silly naivety, but I run ahead because if anything will convince you of the error of our laws regarding weed it is the story unfolding in the Mnweni Valley of the Drakensberg.

The Mnweni Valley

The Drakensberg Mountains were created millions of years ago when an ancient seabed reared up to form a great escarpment that was then sculpted by erosion. They range from the Eastern Cape to Mpumalanga, but they are most dramatic in the remote Mnweni Valley.

This is a wilderness area 30km in length and 10km wide. It is a land of rivers. Water oozes from the mountain backdrop, feeding the Mnweni itself, and numerous other rivers. Here nature is at its grandest. The air is clear and fresh. The views are superb, varying from smooth vertical faced mountains, to domes and spear like pinnacles. You are never far from the sounds of trickling water – or a dagga crop.

Dagga Raid

On the cold and wet Tuesday morning of 21 February 1956 a police patrol set out on a dagga raid into the valley and by midday over 50 fields of dagga had been burnt and a substantial amount of harvested marijuana found. As an action it was little different from the countless others that had gone before and since into the valley to destroy dagga and arrest anyone found in possession among the scattered Amangwane community who live there.

But on this occasion something went wrong – probably a slight – because the large group of tribesmen armed with knobkerries and assegais that had gathered above Zondo’s kraal began moving on the police. The situation was extremely tense, but could have been resolved had a policeman, against orders, not drawn his revolver and killed one of the men. Chaos erupted and before the gun smoke cleared five policemen lay dead.

Mass Execution

The reaction from the authorities was swift, massive and brutal. Reinforcements, guided by fully armed Harvard aircraft, swarmed over the area and plans were made to bomb tribesmen should they attempt to flee into Lesotho.

When it was over another two tribesmen had been killed and twenty-six arrested – of which twenty-two were executed. According to local sources, at least one of these was not involved in the attack, but implicated by other tribesmen as revenge for an unrelated incident.

No Potheads

The Amangwane, however, are not potheads or dreadlocked Rastafarians, but the most conservative community south of the Tugela. For them the use of dagga has been perfectly acceptable for centuries.

Medicinally, their traditional healers believe that the Bushmen, with their sophisticated knowledge of nature, were the great healing masters and that if they smoke cannabis a Bushman will be revealed to them as a shaman or guide.

Socially, while all may smoke cannabis in the community, it is most acceptable for older men to use it and it often provides an excuse for men to get together and bond. 

British Colonialism

It was the British, who funded many of their colonial adventures through the opium trade, who made usage illicit. Moreover, the colonisers recognised the Amangwane only insofar as they could act as a buffer between marauding Bushmen and the Natal Midlands and the tribe was pushed up against the mountains where the soil is so sensitive that it cannot support even subsistence farming.

No culture, irrespective of how traditional, can survive in a cash-based economy without cash. One of the few crops that thrive here is cannabis and it, together with migrant labour, became the tribe’s primary method of entering the European based cash economy.

Symbiotic Relationship

It would appear, from the Amangwane point of view, that the legalisation or decriminalisation of dagga would be a godsend. Herein lies a great irony – one that nearly got me killed.

There is a symbiotic relationship between them, the police and the justice system. The more the police and justice departments harass the growers, the more valuable become their crops and the more resources the police and justice systems receive.

On the periphery, the conservative law-abiding white community of Bergville also benefits from the status quo as business booms when there has been a particularly good harvest.

The Great Game

The big loser has been the environment. In the game of avoiding the police, the Amangwane resorted to growing cannabis on higher and higher slopes where helicopters cannot land. In turn, the police have intensified their efforts by spraying cannabis crops with herbicides where they cannot get on the ground to burn them.

The net effect has been an environmental disaster as the slopes have become eroded and the rivers, in a major catchment area, polluted by herbicides which, among other things, adversely affects the community’s meagre crops downstream – making them even more reliant on the sale of dagga.

Chronic Pain Relief

But the damage to the environment is not the only reason why we should relook the issue of cannabis. Besides recreation there are many uses for the herb – particularly in the field of chronic pain relief in cancer and AIDS sufferers. Considering the low toxicity of cannabis in relation to prescribed drugs, its continued ban is doubly ridiculous.

Further, the thinly spread police are not winning the war on anything – particularly the battle against drug syndicates. All the 20000 or so annual dagga related arrests do, other than clog the justice system and cost the taxpayer a fortune, is punish users and those at the bottom of the drug food chain.

Hotel Walter

The best argument for legalisation, however, is provided in the quaint sandstone Hotel Walter in Bergville. In the wood-panelled bar – adorned with a sign: ‘Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. Yes is the answer’ – crowds of sweat caked men in khaki and velskoene unwind at the end of the day with a tipple or two of one of the most dangerous substance in the world.

Yet, when pressed, most of these people will offer a score of reasons why dagga should not be legalised. Then, at closing time, they will weave down the flower-lined path, fumble for their car keys, get in, burp and spin their tyres as they pull drunkenly away. If we can tolerate this then anything is possible.

More Important Issues at Stake

Unfortunately it is round the emotion-laden question of recreational use that the argument for marijuana continually gets bogged down. It is a case of the fighting being most vehement where the pickings are the leanest. Suffice it to say that if we can regulate and tax the use of alcohol and tobacco we can do the same with dagga.

There are simply more important issues at stake. When all is said and done it is up to government to take the lead. But their attitude to the legalisation of dagga, especially in view of their overwhelming mandate and priorities, is wishy-washy. This only gives credence to claims that they are hostage to the interests of others – maybe those of the US that is known to put pressure on governments that consider reforming antiquated drug laws.