A person who works as a historian at Rhodes University is of the opinion that laws prohibiting the cultivation and smoking of marijuana is racist and irrational and the consequences of colonialism.
Craig Paterson is a witness in the case where Myrtle Clarke and Jules Stobbs ask that the laws prohibiting the sale of marijuana should be declared unconstitutional.
According to Paterson, marijuana was widely used before the colonial period.
He also told the court that it was easier to ban marijuana in 1922 than alcohol, because of only Indians, coloreds, and blacks, using marijuana while whites had used alcohol. He says there is more evidence that alcohol leads to crime and social disturbances, as is the case with marijuana.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
