Last week, a member of the South African Parliament made a heartfelt plea to President Jacob Zuma and the MP’s to consider his proposal for the introduction of the Medical Innovation Bill.
These few minutes of his speech and courageous words have made national news headlines in the last week around South Africa.
Mario Oriani-Ambrosin is a member of the Inkatha Freedom Party and on the 19th of February he proposed the bill to MPs, as he had recently used cannabis illegally as an alternative therapy to help cure his Stage 4 cancer. With a smile on his face, and charismatic words coming from his heart, you could still the feel the pain this man was going through.
“I was supposed to die many months ago and I am here because I had the courage of taking illegal treatments in Italy in the form of bicarbonate of soda and here in South Africa in the form of cannabis, marijuana or dagga,” Mario Oriani-Ambrosin said. “Otherwise I would be pumped with morphine and I would not be able to speak to you, Mr President.
“What this paperwork stands for is the proposition that there is no rational argument for continuing to deprive medical marijuana to people like me who need it,” Oriani-Ambrosini said.
The South African law, the Illicit Drugs and Trafficking Act of 1992, prohibits the possession, cultivation and shipment of cannabis/dagga. This law is the most racist law in existence written in South Africa’s constitution today.
Cannabis actvism is alive and well in South Africa with activist movements such as the Dagga Couple (www.daggacouple.co.za) and political parties, namely, The Dagga Party (www.daggaparty.co.za) are creating clouds of momentum and the truth is being told about a plant with huge potential.
Jeremy Acton of the registered Dagga Party of South Africa, IQELA LENTSANGO,has also been fighting in the courts for re-legalization of the cannabis plant within South Africa or quite a few years.
“I ask that all citizens who use dagga and who support legalization for the public benefit will stand together locally and at the ballots, in our shared respect for the Cannabis Tree, and in mutual respect for each other, and that we will all MOBILISE as one culture to claim our rights via the 2014 Election processes,” Acton said.
By Chris Jay (wired@weed.co.za)
