can’t smoke it
Paul Kirk
When Durban advocate Jenny Wild was diagnosed as suffering from an advanced and terminal form of cancer she went on a chemotherapy course and, like many others, she experienced severe nausea and weight loss due to her medication. To alleviate these side effects her doctor prescribed a pill called Elevat.
Elevat is one of the most effective preparations for treating nausea in chemotherapy patients and weight loss in Aids victims. The active ingredient of the drug is dronabinol, the name the medicine trade has given Tetra Hydra Cannabinol (THC). THC is the active, and therefore the illegal, ingredient of dagga and is unique to the plant. Ironically this means that, while you can legally swallow a dagga pill, you cannot smoke it.
And while Elevat is legally available – albeit highly controlled – it is prohibitively expensive. The version of the pill Wild was prescribed retails at nearly R150 a dose. Swallowing Elevat is about 100 times more expensive than smoking dagga.
Wild, like many other South Africans, decided to rather grow her own medication.
Says Wild: “It is an absurd situation. What the law is saying is that I am not allowed a cheap natural treatment for my nausea and vomiting. I am dying of cancer and sick from chemotherapy but the only way I can have relief from my symptoms is to bankrupt myself. Something is not right.”
About three weeks ago Wild was visited by Superintendent Piet Senekal from the office of the national commissioner of police. Senekal was investigating allegations made by the feisty Durban advocate that police, principally the South African Narcotics Bureau (Sanab) and the organised crime unit, are actively involved in large-scale organised crime.
Wild’s name appears on a list of witnesses disgraced KwaZulu-Natal top cop Piet Meyer is prohibited from contacting under any circumstances. During Senekal’s visit Wild openly told Senekal that she was cultivating a dagga plant in her vegetable garden.
Senekal said nothing to Wild about the legality of the plant. Instead he went away and instructed Sanab to arrest and charge the ailing advocate for growing a prohibited plant.
Wild is now being prosecuted on charges of being in possession of a dagga plant and seedlings.
“I consider the situation immoral,” says Wild. “What the law is saying is that only the rich can have access to a cheap natural substance.”
A Durban doctor who asked not to be named for ethical as well as legal reasons says he, and many of his colleagues, regularly – and secretly – advise patients who cannot afford Elevat to buy dagga and either smoke the plant or make a tea out of its leaves.
“A prescription for Elevat basically amounts to a prescription for dagga. The issue here is not whether Jenny Wild is innocent or not, it is whether it is immoral to deny the poor access to a cheap naturally occurring medicine.”
Wild was released on a warning after a brief appearance in court.
Five years ago, Wild was arrested under equally suspicious circumstances for possession of cocaine. The arrest was made – by Meyer – only five minutes after a package of cocaine (which Wild denied ordering) was delivered to her home.