JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s cannabis industry is in turmoil after the Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi unexpectedly gazetted regulations banning cannabis-infused food products in South Africa.
The decision announced this week is based on the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics, and Disinfectants Act of 1972.
The regulation includes the banning of any food with ingredients derived from cannabis, hemp seed oil, or hemp seed flour.
Canna Trade Africa CEO Myron Krost expressed concern around this policy change.
He argues how this policy change will see investors interested in the industry pulling out.
According to Krost, attempts to fight back this policy change are in motion with industry leaders coming together to start lobbying the government.
However, he says the industry should not be fighting but rather the government must work alongside them to regulate this industry.
"Instead of the health department getting out there and saying let's regulate it, educate and discuss, he is saying let's ban which is contrary to the movement," Krost said.
Motsoaledi's decision comes at odds with President Cyril Ramaphosa's State of the Nation Address wherein he said they would be making sustainable use of 'rich' abundance of the South African earth.
This includes supporting farmers, improving logistic networks as well as opening new export markets for products that will expand the agriculture sector, including making South Africa a leading commercial producer of hemp and cannabis.