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South Africa: Is Cape of Good Hope the Cape of good dope?
Ashley Smith Sunday Argus, South Africa
Sunday 26 Oct 2003 Forget about Swaziland or Malawi - South Africa is easily the dope capital of southern Africa. And the country now ranks as the fourth biggest producer in the world. Most dagga confiscated in Britain comes from South Africa. An incredible 1.8 million kilograms of the drug were seized by authorities in South Africa between 1995 and 2000 - making up the vast bulk of seized dagga in the region. The total figure seized for the 14 countries in the Southern African Development Community for the same period was 2.5 million kilograms. Interpol has rated South Africa as the fourth largest producer in the world. During 2000 the South African Police Service seized 718 000kg of the drug - 16 percent of the world total confiscated by the police. In 2001, 496 000kg of dagga worth R450-million was seized. These shocking statistics are found in a detailed study conducted by the Institute for Security Studies entitled Mind-blowing: The Cannabis Trade In Southern Africa. The study, by Peter Gastrow, revealed that most of the dagga confiscated in the UK during 2001 and 2002 was South African in origin. "Of significance for this study is the United Nations' conclusion that nearly a quarter of the cannabis seizures worldwide between 1999 and 2000 occurred in southern Africa. In 2000 the large global increase was mainly the result of seizures in some African countries, specifically South Africa (718 tons), Malawi (312 tons) and Nigeria (272 tons). "The UN further found that Africa's share of global seizures increased from approximately 10 percent to 32 percent, while the share of the Americas decreased from 80 percent to 61 percent. In short there appears to have been a global upsurge in demand for cannabis and a corresponding increase in supply, increasingly from southern Africa." Gastrow's study said the main export market for South African dagga was known to be continental Europe, the UK, Ireland and countries in the East such as South Korea. "The United Nations Drug Control Programme estimated that 147 million people (3,5 percent of the global population aged 15 and above) used cannabis in 1998-2000. In particular, large numbers of young people experiment with cannabis. "Cannabis abuse is increasing in many countries, but stabilising in those where it has already reached high levels. It has increased in Europe, the Americas and Africa and decreased in South and South-West Asia. Overall the international demand for cannabis appears to be growing. "Cannabis is regarded as a relaxant or a mild hallucinogenic drug and has been used by mankind for over 6 000 years." Gastrow said according to Interpol, South Africa is one of the top four dagga suppliers in the world. He said dagga grows wild in South Africa and is a traditional crop in many rural areas, particularly in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. "Large quantities of the drug are smuggled to and from neighbouring countries, either in large plastic bags or in compressed bricks. "South Africa not only has the largest domestic market for cannabis in southern Africa, it is also the gateway for international trafficking, for example in containers by air or sea. "At the same time, South African cannabis is also trafficked to those neighbouring states that are not in a position to produce sufficient to meet their own domestic demand, such as Namibia and Botswana. The country has therefore become the main southern African clearing house for supplying the international cannabis market." Gastrow said in his conclusion that an "intricate network of cannabis traffickers" operated throughout the southern African region "on a scale that is much larger than has been accepted until now".
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