Cannabis lounges and retailers in Gqeberha have been left in a daze after health minister Aaron Motsoaledi gazetted regulations calling for a ban on the sale, production and import of cannabis-infused food products.
This has sparked a clearance frenzy, with some dealers slashing prices to offload stock before it goes up in smoke — while customers wonder if their purchases are about to become contraband snacks.
The shock regulations were published by the department of health on Friday March 7.
It proposed a ban on any food with ingredients derived from cannabis, hemp seed oil or hemp seed flour.
This is in terms of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act of 1972.
“No-one may sell, manufacture or import, processed or unprocessed, foodstuff containing ... any part of the plant or component from the genus cannabis which include C.safiva, C.indica and C.ruderalis, or hemp seed oil or powder from any component derived from the genus cannabis saliva L, and various species or subspecies in the genus cannabis saliva,” the gazette reads.
The department still has to hold a public participation process on the new regulations.
It will then be referred to the relevant committee in parliament.
Everything High owner William Smith said news of the regulations had spooked some in the industry.
The private club is in Overbaakens.
With the uncertainty over whether cannabis lounges and over-the-counter sellers could soon be falling foul of the law, he said some owners had begun trying to clear stock at discounts.
“Some of my peers who own stores for edibles, or social clubs, are trying to get rid of all of their stock because they are scared of getting into trouble,” he said.
Since the news about the regulations started making the rounds last week, Smith said he had also been getting calls from customers asking whether products had been banned.
“I have well-respected clients who use our services and products daily to help them, and this is something we have all been waiting to be fully passed in law,” he said.
He said if the new regulations became law, it would be a huge blow to the industry.
“The economy will be affected because cannabis is a multibillion-rand industry.
“We are VAT registered and I pay provisional tax.
“This will affect everything and not just my customers,” he said.
According to the national cannabis master plan, the formal cannabis industry has the potential to create up to 25,000 jobs and could be worth about R28bn.
The plan was published in 2021, outlining the growth strategy for the formal cannabis industry.
“We agree that there has to be regulation for people with backyard operations without the right equipment, but you cannot just shut it down for people doing things right,” Smith said.
“It seems this is coming from people in power who can make decisions but do not have any knowledge,” he said.
Dazed and Blazed owner Charney Burger said at first she did not think the gazette was legitimate.
The shop is in Newton Park.
“If this is the case, then it will be a huge knock on all our businesses because the majority of our clients don’t always smoke but prefer what they can eat, especially for medicinal benefits.”
She said a ban on edible products would hit clients who used the products for medicinal purposes.
“If people are ill with cancer, it is not easy for them to get foils and capsules.
“It is a lot easier to consume something that will give them those benefits.”
She said the gazetted regulations could not have come at a worse time after their second establishment — Club High — was destroyed by a fire that gutted the historic Richly House on Cape Road.
“At the moment, I do not know what we are going to do, but we are going to hold on until it is clear what exactly the government wants to do,” she said.
Meanwhile, the regulations have also drawn the ire of lobby groups which said they had been blindsided by the new rules.
Fields of Green for All association victim support manager Charl Henning said the organisation was prepared to fight tooth and nail to make sure the regulations did not become law.
“We have already seen a huge pushback from the cannabis community,” Henning said.
“People are unhappy because this is seen as a complete surprise — in conflict with what [President Cyril] Ramaphosa has been saying in his last four state of the nation addresses.
“How is this in line with the intentions to grow a cannabis economy?
“Our MD, Myrtle Clarke, is at the annual commission for narcotics and drugs in Vienna, but when she is back, we will work on what can be done to stop this.
“But we do not expect the pushback just from Fields of Green for All but the other stakeholders with interests in hemp growing,” he said.
Henning said the new regulations were not only in conflict with the master plan now being championed by the department of trade and industry, but also with the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act signed by Ramaphosa in 2024.
Health department spokesperson Foster Mohale said the regulations were only being proposed as an interim ban until laws regulating the use of cannabis in food were legislated.
“We are just prohibiting for now. Just as during Covid-19, the government issued a lockdown directive while we were trying to find a way to control the disease.
“We have published this for public comment so we can consider everything supported by scientific data.”
He said while the disturbance within the industry could be expected, final regulations would only be passed once inputs from sector stakeholders had been received.
“We are not criminalising the industry or telling people not to smoke, but only stating that in instances that it’s put in food, it must be clearly labelled and the amount disclosed,” he said.
“This is simply about protecting the health of consumers because now there are no laws regulating the amount and quantity which can be put inside foodstuffs.
“The use of cannabis as a medicinal product is regulated by the SA Health Product Authority, but there is no law which regulates cannabis in food, and if we leave it like that people will come up with untested recipes which may be dangerous.”
The Herald
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