Eastern Cape dagga growers and the network of smugglers and dealers are worried that the cultivation of hemp in South Africa will render their crops worthless within a few years.
If hemp is deregulated and large-scale farms are established in the former Transkei, cross-pollination will cause dagga from the region to lose its potency within a few seasons.
Hemp is closely related to dagga but contains only tiny amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in dagga. Both are prolific pollinators and dagga growers realise that their plants will lose most of their potent THC after cross-pollination with plants from hemp farms.
Flowers from the female plant are the parts that are smoked. To get the most potent dagga, farmers remove the male plants before they flower. Female plants that are pollinated lose potency and produce many seeds. Unseeded potent dagga realises much higher prices.
Hemp plants are intentionally pollinated to produce seed, which is a good food source, full of protein, essential fatty acids, and is one of the rare vegetable sources of all eight essential amino acids. But hemp seed is free of THC.
A dagga dealer who regularly does the N2 run from the Lusikisiki area down to Cape Town, his van packed with dagga for the Rastafarian market, says hemp farms in the area would damage the already threatened dagga farms.
”Bad growing practice and the burning and spraying of crops by the police is making it harder to find decent weed in the ‘kei. You really have to look hard for the good stuff. Hemp could make it damn near impossible.”
Louise van der Merwe of the Agricultural Research Council confirmed the THC content of new dagga plants would be dramatically reduced if the parent plant was pollinated by hemp.
The Eastern Cape has long been the largest dagga-producing area in South Africa. There is little infrastructure for growers, and dagga, being relatively easy to grow, is one of the few cash crops available. The industry has been one of the main sources of income for the area and puts food on the tables of many families.
Supporters of the hemp movement, including the Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council, are rallying to get industrial hemp deregulated to provide rural farmers with a viable alternative to dagga. Hemp could create a thriving industry in the Eastern Cape, the most impoverished province in the country.
The government has resisted deregulating hemp, believing the fields could be used as a cover for growing dagga. But that is unlikely because of the inevitability of cross-pollination. The two plants are different and the police can be trained to distinguish them.
”Hemp fields could be a deterrent to marijuana growers,” David West stated in a report for the North American Industrial Hemp Council. ”A strong case can be made that the best way to reduce the THC level of marijuana grown outdoors would be to grow industrial hemp near it.”
Hemp has been extensively used throughout history and its proponents claim it is one of the most beneficial plants known. Only in the past 70 years has it been illegal to cultivate the plant because of its relationship to dagga.
This year much of the dagga in the Eastern Cape was sprayed with herbicide. Herbicides, however, affect the entire ecology of the area and can remain in the water table for 20 years.
This has also affected communities that rely on the dagga trade for their livelihood. If the war on dagga is going to continue, a feasible alternative needs to be found. The growers have the expertise needed to cultivate cannabis, so the crossover to hemp would be logical.
Deregulating hemp will not only provide a crop that can produce food, fuel, clothing and housing without damaging the environment but could be the government’s key move in destroying the dagga industry in the Eastern Cape.