Abstract
On the 4th of November 1949 the South African Department of Social Welfare appointed an interdepartmental committee of inquiry to investigate the ‘abuse of dagga’ (cannabis) in the Union, as had been recommended in 1937 by the Cape Coloured Commission. Over two years, the research team gathered data and various civic and professional perspectives on dagga, in order to seek solutions to control the cultivation, trade, and use, of the cannabis plant and its products. The 1952 commission’s report was important in reinforcing the shift from demand-side control to supply-side control, therefore impacting local official thinking into the 1970s and beyond. This dissertation focuses on the making and formulation of this commission, its research processes and design, and the diversity of voices presented as evidence. I seek to find out what made it into the final report and what was excluded, what methods were used and how these enforced or pushed against broader public perspectives about cannabis. Using archival primary sources from the National Archive of South Africa, I examine these developments also to show how aspects of race, class, and gender figured in the methods, findings, and published research of the commission.