Abstract

SEGANOE, Lebohang  and  WAETJEN, Thembisa. Advocates of 'an unpopular cause': Frances Ames, Helen Suzman and Cannabis Decriminalisation in South Africa. Historia [online]. 2023, vol.68, n.1, pp.142-175. ISSN 2309-8392.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-8392/2023/v68n1a6.

Two South African professional women were early advocates of cannabis decriminalisation during the second half of the twentieth century. Frances Ames (1920-2002) was a neurologist and psychiatrist based at the Medical School of the University of Cape Town. Helen Suzman (1917-2009) represented the Progressive Party for 36 years as an opposition member of parliament. This article documents their individual - later allied - activities and arguments, initially in relation to National Party (apartheid) drug control measures and then into the democratic era of the African National Congress. A social history approach reveals continuities and changes in the cannabis policy rationales of successive governments and the challenges made to these policies.

Keywords : Cannabis; dagga; drug decriminalisation; drug policy; medical cannabis; Frances Ames; Helen Suzman; Insangu; Ukuvumela Ukusetshenziswa Kwezidakamizwa; Inqubomgomo Yezidakamizwa; Insangu Yezokwelapha; u-Frances Ames; u-Helen Suzman.

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