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Investing in Cannabis in South Africa

11 April 2023 | Ann Ellis-Brown

"The introduction of the licencing framework for cultivation and manufacture of medicinal cannabis opens new investment opportunities in South Africa. The Western Cape region in particular has already attracted significant investor interest."

Wesgro – extract

2021

To what extent has cannabis been legalised in South Africa?

Various separate events have influenced the legality of cannabis in South Africa since 2017.

  • In 2017, the Department of Health introduced a licencing framework for the domestic cultivation and manufacture of medicinal cannabis.
  • In 2018, the Constitutional Court of South Africa decriminalised private use and cultivation of cannabis based on the right to privacy.
  • In 2019, the Minister of Health rescheduled cannabidiol (CBD), and temporarily (for up to one year) excluded certain preparations containing CBD from the operation of the Schedules to the Medicines and Related Substances Act.
  • In 2020,
    The Minister of Health confirmed the exclusion of certain CBD-containing products permanently from Schedule 4, however with certain differences from the 2019 exclusion. CBD is thus listed as Schedule 4, while exempt CBD products are regulated as Schedule 0.
    Cannabis, dronabinol and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are no longer listed as Schedule 7.
    THC is rescheduled and is now listed as Schedule 6, with certain exceptions.
  • In 2020, the Department of Justice and Correctional Services introduced the Draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill for comment. The purpose of this bill is to give effect to the Constitutional Court judgement of 2018.

What is cannabis?
Cannabis is made from the dried flowering heads and leaves of a plant called Cannabis sativa. Cannabis contains a complex mix of approximately 60 unique ‘cannabinoids’ along with many other chemical compounds. The main active ingredient responsible for the ‘high’ produced by cannabis is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
Other related substances in cannabis include cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN), both of which have quite different pharmacological effects. These are collectively known as ‘cannabinoids’. Different strains of cannabis produce different amounts of these chemical substances.

What is medicinal cannabis?
Medicinal cannabis’ is a term that refers to legal, high quality and standardised products made from crude or raw cannabis. Crude cannabis is a difficult drug for doctors to prescribe because the dose and potency of the drug in each case is not tested or known. Pharmaceutical preparations of cannabis use modified active components of cannabis in medical formulations, which maximise the therapeutic benefit and minimise side effects.
Pharmaceutical preparations, such as a tablet, capsule or spray, mean the concentration can be standardised and the dose controlled. Many medicinal cannabis products contain a combination of THC and CBD. Some products contain CBD only and others contain predominantly THC.

Differences between medicinal and recreational cannabis
Medicinal cannabis is legally produced under strict pharmaceutical conditions. Doctors and pharmacists know exactly what the medicine contains. The ingredients, potency and quality of illicit recreational cannabis are untested.
Contamination with microbes, pesticides and heavy metals can occur. Medicinal cannabis products are generally available as oils, sprays, tinctures and capsules. By contrast, illicit cannabis is usually smoked. These differences mean cannabis sourced through illicit channels cannot be described as ‘medicinal cannabis’.

Legal Framework

How is medicinal cannabis currently regulated in South Africa?
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) controls the sale, possession and manufacture of any medicine or Scheduled substance in South Africa. This is regulated by the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965 (the Medicines Act). SAHPRA is the new name for the old Medicines Control Council (MCC).

Patient access
Application for access to unregistered pharmaceutical products
There are currently no registered cannabis-containing medicines in South Africa, therefore patients wanting to use such medication need to follow the procedure for obtaining permission to use an unregistered medicine.
Currently patients are able to obtain cannabis products for medicinal use in terms of section 21 and 22 of the Medicines Act, which allows medical practitioners to apply to SAHPRA for permission to access and prescribe unregistered medicines. Under this process medicinal cannabis products may be made available, under medical supervision and in exceptional circumstances, to specific patients. Until now, patient access to unregistered pharmaceutical products containing cannabinoids had been enabled by SAHPRA through the importation of these products only.
The new licencing framework carves out the possibility for cannabis-containing medicines to be registered in South Africa by SAHPRA. Until such time as registered cannabis-containing medicines are available, access to such products will continue to rely on the section 21 approval process.

Scheduling of CBD and THC
From May 2019 –May 2020 certain preparations of CBD were excluded temporarily from scheduling, which meant that CBD products could be sold over the counter under restricted conditions. On 22 May 2020, the Minister of Health issued a new notice in which he confirmed the exclusion of CBD (but with
different conditions) and further amended the Schedules as follows:

  1. Cannabis, dronabinol, and tetrahydrocannabinol are no longer listed as Schedule 7.
  2. Cannabidiol (CBD) is listed in Schedule 4, except:
    • in complementary medicines containing no more than 600 mg cannabidiol per sales pack, pro
    viding a maximum daily dose of 20 mg of cannabidiol, and making a general health enhancement,
    health maintenance or relief of minor symptoms (low-risk) claim; or
    • processed products made from cannabis raw plant material intended for ingestion containing
    0,0075 percent or less of cannabidiol where only the naturally occurring quantity of cannabinoids found in the source material are contained in the product.
    • Products that meet those listed conditions will instead be regulated as Schedule 0.
  3. (-)-transdelta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is listed in Schedule 6, except –
    • in raw plant material and processed products manufactured from such material, intended for industrial purposes and not for human or animal ingestion, containing 0,2 % percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol;
    • processed products made from cannabis containing 0,001 percent or less of tetrahydrocannabinol; or
    • when raw plant material is cultivated, possessed, and consumed by an adult, in private for personal consumption.

Is it legal to cultivate and manufacture medicinal cannabis products in South Africa?
A licencing framework for domestic cultivation of cannabis and manufacture of cannabis-related pharmaceutical products for medicinal and research purposes was introduced at the end of 2017 by SAHPRA and the Department of Health.

It was introduced in order to ensure availability of standardised quality-assured medicinal cannabis grown locally for the manufacture of suitable pharmaceutical products.

Medical cannabis market
Why is the medical market (as opposed to recreational) more attractive from a grower’s perspective in the Western Cape? The answer is twofold. In the first place, global cannabis demand is met by current supply, even if it has been illegal. There is therefore a large and established recreational supply market and the growers in this segment will most likely be able to meet legal recreational demand over the medium term. The second reason is that in the future (and already in the present), medical cannabis will have to be cultivated in laboratory-like conditions and hence, will require extensive greenhouse environments and make use of pesticide free soil.
In recent years, there has been a large-scale expansion of green houses in the Western Cape to cater for the demand for crops such as blue berries and tomatoes. The long hours of sunshine are a massive boost to natural growth conditions with artificial lighting only used periodically during winter months. Further, the province has a strong historical performance in terms of production and expertise in agriculture, and finding skilled workers will not be a problem. Since water will be used in a controlled environment it will also mean that crops will use less water than in open growth areas.
Based on various expectations the legal cannabis market is expected to grow at approximately 20% per annum for the next 10 years. For this reason, there has been a global explosion in cannabis related investment. In the short term there will more than likely be an oversupply of both recreational and medical material, but as high-cost suppliers are eliminated, the low-cost destinations will flourish, thereby creating many thousands of new jobs and propelling economic growth.
By 2023, the value of Africa’s legal cannabis market could be worth over USD 7.1bn. The medicinal cannabis market in South Africa is projected to reach USD 667 million by 2023.

To read the full report, click Wesgro Investing in Cannabis Fact Sheet