SEDGEFIELD NEWS - Two months after the first legal cannabidiol (CBD) shop on the Garden Route opened in Sedgefield, owner Megan Steyn remains positive that the ban on the cannabis compound will remain lifted after the trial period ends in May next year.
CBD Care opened at the Forest Lodge Centre in Sedgefield on 10 July as the first shop on the Garden Route that is legally able to sell products that contain CBD, a compound in cannabis/hemp that is touted as beneficial in treating diseases such as Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's, autism, epilepsy and many more.
CBD, which doesn't produce a "high" like its counterpart THC, had previously been banned for retail and commercial use in South Africa, but in the Government Gazette issued on 23 May, former health minister (now home affairs) Dr Aaron Motsoaledi fully legalised the selling of products containing CBD within certain parameters for a period of 12 months.
The decree meant CBD products are legal up until 15 May 2020, at which point the health department will revisit the matter and decide whether to extend the exemption of CBD from the Operation of Certain Provisions of the Medicines and Related Substances Act, 1965 or reinforce the ban. As owner of the Garden Route's very first shop to legally sell CBD products, Steyn believes there is only a positive way forward from here.
"I don't think they can turn back now," Steyn says. "It's already come so far, and the medicinal benefits of CBD are too important for them to simply overlook it and not extend the exemption."
Megan Steyn with some of the products at her store in Sedgefield. Photo: Blake Linder
The decree meant CBD products are legal up until 15 May 2020.
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