We can’t believe that this old lemon has reared its ugly head again.
We haven’t had to address the question since the bad old days of full prohibition and gathering evidence for The Trial of the Plant.
Back in 2015 we made very simple summaries of the two sides of the argument for court – ours (the plaintiffs, we charged the government with enacting unlawful laws) and the state’s (the defendants).
Because the evidence has never been heard, prohibitionist mindsets persist. This is as our government should be preparing and presenting a set of regulations to promulgate the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (CfPPA), which would take Cannabis out of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act of 1992. This hasn’t happened.
The fact that the “gateway hypothesis” still requires explanation is hugely frustrating for the millions of South Africans who actually use, cultivate and trade in Cannabis. Coupled to this is the overarching stigma of drug use in general. The terms “hard” and “soft” drugs are also prohibitionist and stand in the way of meaningful conversations around Human Rights, Harm Reduction and Drug Policy Reform – everything we stand for here at Fields of Green for ALL.
For purposes of this conversation, we will distinguish between Cannabis and “other” drugs to include: Alcohol, tobacco, stimulants, opioids, psychedelics, even caffeine and sugar… We have always said that there should be no “Drug Apartheid” – we do not consider ourselves, as Cannabis users, any “better” than anyone else who chooses to use anything considered or classified as a drug.
The simple fact is, no scientific causal link between the use of Cannabis and the use of other drugs has ever been established.
A very important legal principle is at play here:
Correlation does not imply causation.
While a correlation between two events may suggest an association, it does not establish that one caused the other. In legal proceedings, liability requires proof of causation, not merely coincidence or statistical association. Correlation alone can be misleading, as it may reflect unrelated or confounding factors. Accordingly, courts require reliable evidence demonstrating a direct causal link between the alleged conduct and the harm suffered, rather than an inference based solely on observed correlation.
The Century of Prohibition that Cannabis users, cultivators and traders have endured is underlined by the most successful international propaganda campaign ever:
“Reefer Madness”. Those who still insist that Cannabis is the gateway to substance use disorders HAVE to take these posters seriously:
Several large reviews and meta-analyses have found that common factors such as genetics, environment, social context, and personality traits better explain the use of other drugs than Cannabis use itself.
The gateway theory originated as a policy justification, without strong empirical evidence and exaggerates the risks of Cannabis (Cannabis is NOT harmless) and does not account for broader societal and individual factors.
We could go on and on with explanations but let’s just leave this here:
If there are an estimated 20 million people in South Africa who use or have used Cannabis, and with the proliferation of “pot shops” on almost every corner, why is our country not completely overwhelmed by substance use disorders? Yes, we have a very grave situation with people battling to cope with a wide range of “addictions” and also battling access and availability of treatment BUT, unless this “gateway hypothesis” is put to bed once and for all, we will never achieve fair, constitutional and evidence based regulations to go with our hard-fought 2018 Constitutional Court victory.
Here are some references for further reading:
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010.html
https://nij.ojp.gov/library/publications/cannabis-gateway-drug-key-findings-and-literature-review
https://www.newpaltz.edu/media/the-benjamin-center/db_18_the_marijuana_gateway_fallacy.pdf
https://internationalcbc.com/study-demonstrates-that-cannabis-is-an-exit-drug-not-a-gateway-drug/
https://workmansrelief.com/new-global-studies-show-marijuana-is-not-a-gateway-drug/
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