Abstract
Under the Customs and Excise Duties Amendment Act No.35 of 1922, cannabis (‘dagga’) was nationally prohibited and criminalized in South Africa, and police began recording arrests and seizures amounts of the substance. My focus is on the mid-century period (specifically 1932-1960) to capture a picture of police statistics. This was a period, spanning colonial and apartheid period that saw significant change in policies affecting civic liberties more generally. Authorities of the South African state worked to control the possession, cultivation and use of dagga, against emerging illicit dagga economies. This produced the penalization of majority African users many of whom had a long history of dagga-smoking as part of their culture. This thesis is based upon annual data from police files from the National Archives of South Africa, specifically consisting of numbers of arrests and amounts of dagga seized by division and district. It investigates trends and considers possible explanations related to political and legal change and shifts in the nature of policing. My study offers a historical perspective, informing a South African perspective on worldwide and local debates about the legal status of cannabis, and recent steps taken by the Constitutional Court towards decriminalizing dagga in South Africa.
M.A. (History)