{"id":557190,"date":"2022-02-10T20:45:17","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=557190"},"modified":"2022-02-10T20:45:17","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:45:17","slug":"south-africa-to-fast-track-regulations-for-the-local-cannabis-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/557190\/south-africa-to-fast-track-regulations-for-the-local-cannabis-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa to fast-track regulations for the local cannabis industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">President Cyril Ramaphosa<\/span> says that the government will fast-track regulations for the cannabis industry in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The president said in his <span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday evening (10 February), that h<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">emp and <\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-b88u0q r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">cannabis<\/span><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\"> production can create 130,000 new jobs.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>He said that the government will review the policy and regulatory framework for a whole number of processes &#8211; which, he said, will come as sweet news for people in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal &#8211; for industrial hemp and cannabis to realise &#8216;huge&#8217; potential for investment and job creation.<\/p>\n<p>He said that these products, which have been farmed for numerous purposes in the past, will now be industrialised. &#8220;We want to harness this,&#8221; the president said.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0\">&#8220;We are going to fast-track policy and regulations for the use of cannabis for medicinal use, especially in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill is currently making its way through parliament following its introduction in September 2020.<\/p>\n<p>The bill outlines possession rules for cannabis users at home and people who wish to cultivate the plant. It also introduces new offences and provisions for people who previously received a criminal record for cannabis possession.<\/p>\n<p>The draft bill states that an adult person may for personal use:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Possess the prescribed quantity of cannabis plant cultivation material;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Cultivate the prescribed quantity of cannabis plants in a private place;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Possess in private the prescribed quantity of cannabis in a public place;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Possess the prescribed quantity of cannabis in a private place;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Possess in private the prescribed quantity of cannabis plants in a public place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The bill defines a &#8216;private place&#8217; as any place, including a building, house, room, shed, hut, tent, mobile home, caravan, boat or land or any portion thereof, to which the public does not have access as of right.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/556178\/cannabis-firm-targets-south-africa-listing-by-the-third-quarter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cannabis firm targets South Africa listing &#8216;by the third quarter&#8217;<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa says that the government will fast-track regulations for the cannabis industry in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":532402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-557190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557190"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557242,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557190\/revisions\/557242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}