Abstract
South African cannabis policy is in flux. Decades of suppressing cannabis as a 'dangerous drug' are giving way to the official promotion of this 'green gold' as a source of economic optimism. Yet recent legislation in the form of a Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (Act 7 of 2024) narrowly seeks to regulate 'adult use' while neglecting to clarify legal terms for commercial exchange. Sales for private adult consumption remain illegal, contributing to public confusion about the status of this substance and its products. In this article, we examine the making of this Act for what it reveals about the shifting 'commodity candidacy' (Appadurai 1986, 13-16) of cannabis in relation to form, value and context. We demonstrate how uneven official processes to standardise the material and molecular elements of cannabis, and to pin down a concept of the private, sit awkwardly adjacent to wider and diverse political-moral claims, rooted in the often-competing dreams of cultural freedom, national development, and private profits. South Africa's status as a cannabis-producing country, its persistent inequalities, and its economic history – including long reliance on another transforming commodity (gold) – make it a unique case for observing changing regimes of economic and symbolic value.