ABOUT a fortnight ago, three police officers - two warrant officers and a constable - appeared briefly in the Muizenberg Magistrate's Court on charges of theft and defeating the ends of justice before being released on bail of R300 each. 

They had allegedly stolen dagga that had been confiscated at the scene of a murder in January and then sold it to drug dealers in Ocean View. 

Oddly enough, it was these very same dealers who apparently reported the matter to the police. Quite what their motive for doing so was we cannot say. Perhaps they felt their line of work was difficult enough without bent cops giving them a bad name.

But an undercover operation was duly launched by the Western Cape anti-corruption unit and, after a six-week investigation, the men - aged 33, 43 and 47 - were arrested when they reported for duty at the local police station.

At roughly the same time, helicopters with the SA Police Service's national air wing - all very Biggles-like, isn't it? - were winding up a three-week operation to spray dagga plantations in the Eastern Cape with herbicides. More than 500 hectares in the Lusikisiki region had now been poisoned.

As SAPS spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale put it, "Drugs have proven to be a very difficult plague to control, not only in South Africa, but throughout the world. These exercises literally nip the dagga problem in the bud."

Nipped in the bud? Ha ha. What a wag that Makgale is. He should be on TV.

But he did go on to speculate that the dagga grown in the area was for export and, according to a news agency report, "that type was one of the most sought-after internationally".

Makgale did add there had been some opposition to the police operation. "Unknown people," he said, had distributed pamphlets stating that the herbicides used by the police were unsafe and detrimental to the environment.

He has however dismissed their concerns, saying that the dosage used was so small that it would only kill the dagga plants - not the surrounding natural vegetation.

"Fortunately, the majority of people in this area are sensible and in favour of us destroying the dagga plantations. Also, we will stop at nothing to ensure that we fulfil our legal, moral and constitutional obligation to combat all forms of crime."

The majority of people in this area are also among the most poverty-stricken in the country. Alas, there are now allegations that their essential food crops have been destroyed in the operation as well. 

According to one report on social media, a mother of two told anti-prohibitionist activists who visited the region that the destruction of her food and dagga crops was devastating. "It cost me everything," she said. "I need R5 000 to survive till next year. Where must I find that money and food now?"

It is obvious that, for all Makgale's enthusiastic prattle that operations like this spray-job keep billions of rands of dagga off our streets, the Lusikisiki dagga growers don't earn a lot of money. 

But imagine what they could earn if the drug was legalised. After all, even the police believed it was premium quality dope, and people all over the world wanted to get their hands on it.  

Think also of the billions of rands a regulated dagga industry would generate for the fiscus - although this may be a good reason to keep it underground: the usual suspects won't get to leech off the trade. At least not legally.

Conservatives may shriek and perform, and the churches may thunder from the pulpit, but research would suggest that it's high time - forgive me - that the ban was lifted. 

A new study published in Scientific Reports, a subsidiary of Nature, has found that, compared with other recreational drugs, marijuana may be safer than previously thought. 

Researchers sought to quantify the risk of death associated with the use of a variety of substances. They found that at the level of individual use, alcohol was the deadliest substance, followed by heroin, cocaine and tobacco. Marijuana was at the bottom of the list - roughly 114 times less deadly than alcohol.

Despite findings like this, and the fact that millions of South Africans use the drug regularly, dagga will remain a dangerous drug in the eyes of our lawmakers. 

Maybe they're right. If so, we have the SAPS to thank. Because of their "Agent Orange" behaviour that there is now what The Times newspaper has dubbed a "weed drought" in Johannesburg - and the shortages have seen street prices increase by more than 200 per cent. Gangsterism and turf wars thrive in such conditions. 

This article first appeared in the Weekend Argus.

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