CCT108/17

[2018] ZACC 30

2018 (10) BCLR 1220 (CC)

2018 (6) SA 393 (CC)

2019 (1) SACR 14 (CC)

Zondo ACJ

7 November 2017

18 September 2018

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12144/34547

Application for the confirmation of an order of constitutional invalidity made by the Cape Town High Court which declared legislation criminalising the use, possession, purchase and cultivation of cannabis unconstitutional: Prince v Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development and Others; Rubin v National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others; Acton and Others v National Director of Public Prosecutions and Others (4153/2012) [2017] ZAWCHC 30; [2017] 2 All SA 864 (WCC); 2017 (4) SA 299 (WCC) (31 March 2017). See also earlier related Constitutional Court judgments: Prince v President of the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope (CCT36/00) [2002] ZACC 1; 2002 (2) SA 794; 2002 (3) BCLR 231 (25 January 2002) (Prince 2) and Prince v President of the Law Society of the Cape of Good Hope and Others (CCT36/00) [2000] ZACC 28; 2001 (2) SA 388; 2001 (2) BCLR 133 (12 December 2000) (Prince 1).

sections 4(b) and 5(b) of Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act 140 of 1992 read with Part III of Schedule 2 of that Act and section 22A(9)(a)(1) of the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 101 of 1965 inconsistent with section 14 of the Constitution to the extent that they criminalise the use or possession in private or cultivation in a private place of cannabis by an adult for his or her own personal consumption in private. Interim relief – reading-in order of invalidity granted but suspended for 24 months and interim relief granted.