By This week’s digest spans three continents. South Africa’s cannabis reform remains stalled in prohibition-era logic, Brazil’s industry prepares to debate how to build a competitive domestic production chain, and a federally funded U.S. study reveals where marijuana consumers actually place their trust. Each story highlights the gap between regulation and real-world practice.
South Africa’s Cannabis Reform Remains Trapped in Prohibition Logic
South Africa has spent eight years trying to translate the Constitutional Court’s 2018 cannabis judgment into workable legislation. The Cannabis for Private Purposes Act was signed in 2024 but is not yet in effect, while the regulations needed to prescribe possession and cultivation limits have not yet been brought into force. The starting point was Minister of Justice & Constitutional Development v Prince, in which the Constitutional Court held that criminalising an adult’s private use and possession of cannabis for personal consumption, together with private cultivation for that purpose, unjustifiably infringed the right to privacy.
Departmental submissions and parliamentary records show the government continued to build much of its response around numerical limits, inspection, criminal offences and imprisonment. At a parliamentary meeting later that month, the department of agriculture said it had participated in the earlier drafting process but understood that significant changes had subsequently been made.
Brazil Prepares to Discuss Cannabis Cultivation for Competitiveness
The advancement of regulations for cannabis cultivation for medical and pharmaceutical purposes presents a new challenge for the Brazilian market: transforming the possibilities set out in the rules into a production chain capable of competing with international suppliers. The topic will be one of the highlights of Cannabis Connection 2026, an event taking place on November 5 in São Paulo, bringing together representatives from research, industry, agribusiness, and regulation.
Among the participants is Beatriz Marti Emygdio, a researcher at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) and chair of the institution’s Permanent Strategic Advisory Committee on Cannabis. The researcher summarized the issue: “It is not enough to regulate cultivation; we must regulate to compete.” The development of a Brazilian production chain depends on factors that go beyond cultivation authorization, including the availability of genetics adapted to the country’s climate and soil conditions, the development of cultivars, phytosanitary control, standardization of raw materials, and the supply of seeds and clones.
