Cannabis: erradicación forzada de cultivos en Sudáfrica
Actualmente, los servicios de la policía sudafricana utilizan helicópteros que vuelan a baja altura para fumigar con Kilomax, un herbicida glifosato, sobre agricultores de subsistencia, provocando numerosos daños entre las comunidades afectadas y el medio ambiente. Más información, en inglés, está disponible abajo.
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South Africa has a particular history with the Cannabis plant as it was South Africa that placed the Cannabis on the list of banned substances during the Single Convention on Narcotics Act of 1928. At that time and place, the plant was mainly used by the indentured labourers from India as a sacrament and was banned as it was seen as an “undesirable” element by the ruling colonialist.
Today, the South African Police Services (SAPS) make use of low flying helicopters to spray Kilomax, a glyphosate herbicide, on rural subsistence farmers. This practise started in the mid 1990’s, a few years into South Africa's young democracy. This is not the actions of the apartheid government, this is the action of a government that professes to have dismantled apartheid laws. The international involvement in the South African aerial spraying of glyphosate poisons is without doubt. It is known that funding and technical support for this programme comes from Europe and the United States and it is up to South Africans to enlist the help of forums such as this to put an end to this dangerous and inhumane practise.
In the last two years (2014 / 2015) the war on Cannabis cost the South African tax payer over R3.5 billion (over $223.7million). The majority of arrests were for Cannabis, with a small number being for so-called “hard drugs”.
The South African fight against drugs, and especially cannabis, can only be described as a massive failure. The cost of maintaining the status quo is increasing year on year, with no indication that the current policies are decreasing the use of Cannabis or any other “drugs”. We urge the member states to realize that the idea of a “Drug Free World” is not an attainable goal and a sober view and approach to the problem needs to be taken.
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