Eight Years After Winning His Rights, Gareth Prince Is Back in Court to Defend Them
ABOLISH CANNABIS PROHIBITION
Cape Town, South Africa — Rastafari activist Gareth Prince, the RasTafari Nation Council, and a coalition of small-scale farmers appeared before the Western Cape High Court on July 31, seeking urgent relief from ongoing police arrests and the destruction of cannabis crops, alongside a constitutional challenge to the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act 7 of 2024. The application contends that arresting and detaining people for private cannabis conduct violates the right to privacy and constitutes a failure of administrative justice.
The case forms part of a broader challenge to the Act and its accompanying Hemp Regulations, and seeks relief from continued arrests, plant destruction, and the exclusion of traditional growers from the legal cannabis economy. Despite constitutional protections for private cannabis use and cultivation, police continue to treat practitioners and rural farmers as criminals, with legal counsel arguing that authorities favor heavy-handed detentions over less restrictive measures such as summons. The matter follows an earlier postponement after state respondents failed to file answering papers on time.
The hearing highlights the distance between South Africa’s constitutional recognition of cannabis rights, secured in the 2018 Constitutional Court ruling in Prince’s favor, and enforcement on the ground. Eight years on, the same applicant is again before the courts, pressing for protection from arrest and for the economic inclusion of the traditional growers the law was meant to serve.
Gareth Prince
Photo: hemptoday.net
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