A farmer in South Africa is suing the police after his farm was raided despite him having a research permit to cultivate industrial strains. Although charges against him were all eventually dropped, his legal fees forced him to liquidate everything, and he his hoping to recoup those expenses. As IOL.co.za reports:
A cannabis farmer who grew the weed to cultivate strands for possible industrial use, is claiming R620 000 in damages from the police after he was “unlawfully arrested” for possession of the plant.
The farmer had claimed that he in fact had a permit to be in possession of 1,2 tons of seeds.
A second claim for R2-million in damages against the police is expected to be served before the Pretoria High Court at a later stage by Russell de Beer after he claimed he had lost his crops and his business had collapsed because of the conduct by the police.
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De Beer, who lived in Switzerland before, came to South Africa to see whether it was possible to cultivate cannabis for industrial use.
He said he approached the Agricultural Research Council and was told that it was viable as they too were conducting research in this field. De Beer bought a farm where cannabis was planted in 2002 by the council. He said the plan was to cultivate the strands.
[...]
The ultimate idea was to patent his product, but his dream fell through when police raided his farm in 2004.
The cops showed him a search warrant, which claimed that he was dealing in cannabis, that he was selling it and using.
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He said he was arrested and had to spend a night in a police cell, before he was granted R8 000 bail the next day at the Brits magistrate’s court. His subsequent court case dragged on for nearly a year, during which time it was postponed several times. All charges were eventually withdrawn against him.
This story underscores the importance of further spreading awareness of the difference between industrial hemp and its psychoactive counterpart, marijuana. Without knowing the details of the story, it also seems as though the police were completely unaware that research permits were being issues at all. After all, if it was common knowledge, it would be very unlikely that they would have failed to inquire into the validity of the farmer’s claim.
Then again, there may be political intricacies, here, that I am unaware of. I know very little of South African sociology, but from what I understand, there are considerable problems with corruption. Perhaps the police simply didn’t appreciate a foreigner farming on their land.