South Africa has various laws and regulations to control drug
use. These include the Prevention of and Treatment for
Substance Abuse Act 17 of 2008, the Drugs and Drug
Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 ("the Drugs Act"),
Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1971 and the National Drug Master Plan
2006–2011, all of which prohibit the use of cannabis, be it
for recreational or medicinal purposes.
Section 5 of the Drugs Act, prohibits dealing in any
dependence-producing substance or any dangerous
dependence-producing substance or any undesirable
dependence-producing substance unless one or more exceptions listed
in that section applies. The Internal Directive on cannabis issued
by the South African Police Service deems section 1 of the Drugs
Act, following the decision of the Constitutional Court to read as
follows: "deal in", in relation to a
drug, includes performing any act in connection with the
transhipment, importation, cultivation other than the cultivation
of cannabis by an
