I presume the euphoria following Judge Raymond Zondo’s judgement about the use of giggle grass has somewhat abated by now, especially as the jolly green traders have not noticed a marked increase in sales. But that makes sense - it’s only legal to smoke and fly if you make the effort to grow the stuff with your feet firmly planted on mother earth.

Not that the average South African is frightfully law abiding, but users of the so-called beautiful leaf regularly claim they are more calm and peace loving than their brandy swilling sistas and bros.

Then again, research has shown that dagga also tends to make the user extremely mellow, so if the men in blue go out of their way (dream on!) to enforce the minor technicality that you may only smoke what you grow, dagga-use may actually decline.

However, the labour intensive side of growing your own grass could mean an upswing for the struggling garden service industry. Due to countrywide water restrictions, the poor bakkie horticulturists have seen their hedge clipping and lawn mowing activities dramatically curtailed by home owners’ new found penchant for succulents and gravel.

Cutting the grass may get a whole new meaning as plot ploughmen compete to grow and tend A grade weed instead of getting rid of it.
Maybe Judge Zondo and his team of learned experts are actually trying to counteract the negative effects of the harsh anti-tobacco laws and barrage of counterfeit cigarettes on the state coffers. They could very well be thinking long term in aid of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s economic stimulus plan.

Zondo said dagga may be cultivated for private use – he did not say by whom.

A budding new cannabis home industry could well see lawnmowers making space for grass mowers... and no matter what the anti-dagga lobbyists say, the high pitched buzz of weed eaters is here to stay.