Cannabis industry on a high

Africa’s biggest cannabis event, the Cannabis Expo, touched down at the Sandton Convention Centre on 28 November for four days of industry learning and networking.

The expo was previously held in both Durban and Cape Town this year encouraging the expo’s organiser’s to bring the successful event to Africa’s ‘richest square mile’.

“It is always incredible to see the rate of growth of the cannabis industry through each expo. Every event is bigger than the previous and it’s now the biggest cannabis event in Africa. Day one has been fantastic and I can’t wait to see what the next few days bring,” said director Silas Howarth as the first day concluded.

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In addition to just over 200 exhibitors representing the broad and diverse spectrum of the entire cannabis industry, the expo also included a cannabis food market which served cannabis-infused meals and treats, a vape lounge and an expo stage which hosted a number of informative talks and panels discussion with industry experts every half-hour.

“The cannabis industry is exploding, and the cannabis expo provides the perfect platform for international and local medical health professionals, agricultural providers and lifestyle brands to engage with industry experts and the public around this versatile plant,” Howarth added.

One presentation, in particular, was headed by Andrew Lawrie of Schindlers Attorneys. Lawrie touched base on the current state of South Africa’s cannabis laws – a topic of particular interest to many of the industries consumers and entrepreneurs.

According to Lawrie, while South Africa recently declared the private use of cannabis legal, there are still a few grey areas with regards to quantity specifics. “Generally the law is quite black and white; the grey areas don’t extend to the selling and the purchase of cannabis. The grey area comes in when you ask how much cannabis I can grow?”

“Unfortunately, the responsibility has been placed with the police, the police are now the ones that have to catch you with however many grams of cannabis and they have to make an assessment on the spot whether or not that is too much.”

Lawrie added that the problem or rather an inconsistency comes in because the metric used by the police to make this assessment is, ‘Is this too much for personal consumption?’ “Personal consumption is a very broad concept because personal consumption for me could be very different for other people,” he said.

Lawrie advised concerned users to keep a diary of their product and consumption habits as it can be used to as evidence when deciding if they have too much cannabis.

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