South Africa: Weed in South Africa - Apartheid Waged a War On Drugs That Still Has Unequal Effects Today

were immediately evident, falling disproportionately on black South Africans. Cannabis accounted for well over 95% of drug-related arrests and convictions across all"race" groups.- judges showed how prison terms of two to ten years were being imposed even for the petty possession of single cannabis"zol" .- the segregationist state did not provide drug treatment programmes for black people.

Paradoxically, but unsurprisingly, illegal cannabis cultivation increased within the segregated spaces of apartheid.An illegal crop in high demand was profitable to grow, and even more so to trade. Helicopters spraying herbicides and multiple checkpoints raised the stakes of drug politics for all parties.

The laws's embedded racism meant that as tough drug suppression continued after apartheid ended, its racist effects also continued.. The new law maintained harsh sentences and cannabis remained illegal. The African National Congress, which came into power in 1994, reproduced the heavy-handed tactics it had inherited from the apartheid National Party: militarised suppression, spraying and incarcerations.

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