THE WHAT? South Africa’s health minister has published a Notice in the Government Gazette cementing the removal of the cannabis plant from the Schedules to the Medicines Act and down-scheduling THC, therefore paving the way for the CBD-industry to take off in the country, according to a report published by Daily Maverick.

THE DETAILS Notice R585 effectively allows cannabis to be treated as an raw agricultural commodity with a series of industrial applications where it is not for human or animal ingestion and contains low THC levels (below 0.2 percent).

It also de-schedules THC where trace amounts occur in processed cannabis products such as CBD-based foodstuffs and cosmetics.

THE WHY? The new legislation, says author Brett Pollack, signals the government’s ‘deepening embrace’ of the cannabis sector.