Gustav Thiel
YOU can get away with smoking dope in Cape Town – if you do it at the Rainbow Temple.
The temple, in a house in the upmarket suburb of Oranjezicht, is dedicated to “the holy weed”, otherwise known as cannabis or dagga.
Although the illegality of cannabis is common fact, it is also well known that there are several places in Cape Town where it is easily available.
Police representative John Sterrenberg says anyone found with cannabis will be prosecuted. But other police sources say possession is not considered a high- priority crime and police efforts are centred around known drug dealers.
It is in this climate of apparently reduced criminalisation that Andrew Houndsfield decided to start the Rainbow Temple. He describes it as a place where “knowledge about the spiritual and healing powers of the drug is distributed to the community”.
The temple is a shrine to dagga, with samples of the hemp plant in abundance. Houndsfield invites visitors to “gather information about cannabis”. Anyone can obtain it free of charge from the temple, and all are invited to smoke or eat it as part of “age-old spiritual rituals”.
The police have not raided the Rainbow Temple during the past two months, although local residents say they are aware cannabis is smoked there. Houndsfield was, however, arrested during a protest at Parliament on Human Rights Day for possession of cannabis. He was charged and fined R200.
“It seems strange that they would arrest me during the protest when we smoke cannabis every day at the temple,” he says. “Maybe the police indulge us when we are out of sight.”
Vicky Pinknie-Atkinson of the Medical Association of South Africa notes that while cannabis might have medicinal value for pain relief in terminally ill people, research into its healing power is not considered a high priority.
“We must remember the drug is still illegal and there is, to my knowledge, no policy in the pipeline to have it legalised.” She adds that a debate about legalisation has been given impetus by recent articles in the South African Medical Journal.
Capetonian Frances Ames, who has researched cannabis extensively, wrote in the December 1995 edition: “Cannabis has been used for centuries to induce happiness, relieve suffering and promote spirituality.” But she went on to say that users can “become very anxious as they become aware of weakening of their ego defences.
“Careful, well-controlled studies of cannabis have been much hampered by legislation prohibiting its use. Surely South Africa should follow the example of Australia, which has recently decriminalised it for medical use?”