CANNABIS BILL: INPUT SOUGHT ON NEW PROPOSALS

CANNABIS BILL: INPUT SOUGHT ON NEW PROPOSALS

• 22 September 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

The National Assembly’s Justice & Correctional Services Committee has issued a media statement and a separate notice calling for written submissions by 13 October 2023 on proposals for using the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill to address matters identified in the March 2022 ‘Centre for Child Law judgment’. This is noting that the judgment focused on the best interests of a child found either to have dealt in cannabis or to have been involved in related prohibited activities.

According to the committee statement, it is proposed that the Bill should provide that, in such circumstances, a child should be ‘dealt with outside … the criminal justice system’ in terms of the Children’s Act, 2005, the Prevention of & Treatment for Substance Abuse Act, 2008, ‘or any other relevant legislation’.

This follows a recent National Assembly decision granting the committee permission to extend the Bill’s scope to provide for matters not included in its original memorandum of objects.

• Bill (tabled version)
• media statement
• committee notice
• SA Legal Academy report on committee’s request to extend the Bill’s scope

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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