Valuable Partnerships
Growing Together
Integrity is the cornerstone of all our business interactions. We have nurtured our relationships over decades - we work with people we like. We strive to work through problems seeking solutions that work for all parties. Mutually beneficial business alliances mean we all profit whilst being rewarded for our unique efforts and exceptional service. Despite all assurances we also realise business can be risky - we mitigate the risk for you through our watertight contracts and dispute resolution mechanisms, tailored to the individual requirements of each Offtake agreement. We currently have excellent relationships with a network of subsistence farmers for whom cannabis is a lifeline as well as some of the most successful Commercial farmers on the African continent. Flourish African Cannabis facilitates quality Offtake agreements of almost any scale.
Flourish Cannabis is dedicated to elevating African Landrace strains atop the list of global cultivars. African cannabis is sought after globally for its incredible terpenes and cannabinoids, many of which can't be produced elsewhere. Flourish Cannabis is situated in the heart of the Cape Floristic Kingdom - home to Africa's finest Landrace strains.
We invite breeders to submit samples to us for evaluation - if we believe you have something unique to offer we will test the strain at our expense. If your tested genetics reveal anything worthwhile we will aid you to register them for Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) - the equivalent of copyright for your genetics and the only legal way to protect your strains globally. We have the reach and expertise to aid you in developing your brand and launching your newly registered strain into the global cannabis market. We will manage the collection of royalties on behalf of Breeders, establishing your strains in the premium market segment where the greatest returns lie. We are constantly working with Cannabis research institutions and places of Higher learning seeking cannabis strains for a myriad applications - our network will find the best place for your genetics, to the benefit of all.
Industrial hemp will be a game changer for South Africa, but only when the laws facilitate this and there is sufficient scope to beneficiate the biomass produced by this wonder plant. For now those conditions are not available, but we are closely watching the industry and are geared for the agricultural revolution it will bring.
The Homegrowing Revolution
Cannabis holds the key to a prosperous, non-extractive, anarchic future where citizens are free to shape a life of their choosing.
Imagine an economy based on cannabis, where we preserve and enhance all that is unique and culturally significant about our relationship with the plant through the many voices that make up the South African chorus. An integrated and circular economic model where you are rewarded adequately for your custodianship of our Landrace strains through transparent legal and commercial processes that benefit all in the value chain. Let us build a new economic model where growers, breeders and vendors of cannabis add real value and are rewarded for their efforts.
A neo-colonialist zeitgeist seems to prevail in our current cannabis landscape, where the big commercial entities are given almost exclusive access in preference our myriad impoverished brethren desperate to eke a living from mother nature’s wonder plant. Through the incredible power of technology, social media and cannabis we have the power to change this paradigm. Picture a ‘Retail’ outlet somewhere in rural Pondoland – perhaps within a large Retail chain (a store-within-a-store concept) where anyone with a cannabis strain that they feel has merit – a unique African Landrace strain – can bring their sample to be immediately tested and compared against a global database of cannabis strains. If there is some unique cannabinoid or terpene profile to this strain – in SA there often are - Flourish Cannabis and our Partners can help build an entire domestic value chain around that strain – Breeders, Nurseries, Growers, Processing Facilities, Manufacturing, Transport. It will be an economy built around a high value crop that can be beneficiated collectively to extract the most value. The plant will highlight the unique crafts and cultures that exist on this gloriously innovative continent.
The revolutionary aspect of this is that we will empower people who need it most through aiding them to build the economic paradigm best suited to their needs. We have workable models for building RDP houses almost entirely from hemp, supplementing school feeding schemes, special needs programmes for kids with Foetal Alcohol Syndrome etc…
Our knowledge and experience allow us to see (sometimes uniquely) the powerful intersections of land, cannabis and cultures that would empower people in a meaningful and imminent manner. It is also evident that listening and learning from communities will be key to the process. We could build a new political paradigm where the means of empowerment, healing and forgiveness can be grown anywhere in Africa. If we can change the focus from being Consumers of mass produced poison to Producers of vital, life giving Cannabis products, then we can go a long way to healing our Nation.
Very soon we will be able to provide the raw materials for hemp bricks, hemp protein and organic CBD oil grown by our rural communities and beneficiated on-site, thus empowering these communities further. Flourish Cannabis is working with a multitude of partners to hasten this reality and bring abundance to marginalised rural communities.
Notes on the draft Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill
The SA Government seems to be moving in the right direction with the proposed Bill, but as with all matters government, they tie themselves in knots trying to define what is and isn’t cannabis/ hemp. Much of the limits and definitions will have to be challenged in our Courts, but some of the takeaways are as below;
1. For the purposes of a legal definition of Cannabis as an illegal substance the Seeds, Seedlings/ Cuttings, Stalks Branches without leaves and Roots are not defined as Cannabis. Only the leaves and flowering tops are included. Why the leaves are included – only Cyril knows!
2. The definition also includes any substance that contains more than 0.2% THC
3. Any Cannabis flowers etc containing less than 0.2%THC can be classed as hemp and is not subject to the Bill. It doesn’t specify how or by whom hemp will be regulated?
4. An immature plant or seedling is classed as any plant under 15cms tall or wide.
5. The National Cannabis Advisory Council (NCAC) will be established to help government and industry find each other through the new legislation etc – they will have their work cut out for them.
6. There is scope for the issuance of Cultivation and Trading permits to be issued for Cultural or Religious purposes.
7. It seems the upper limit for possessing Cannabis in a public space has been adjusted to 200grams and provision is made for a household to store up to 1200grams for personal use -away from kids etc…
8. Criminal records for Cannabis convictions will be automatically expunged barring some exclusions.
In general, the law acknowledges the failure of the war on drugs, but still recommends criminal sanction for cannabis offences – effectively limiting the scope for ordinary people to benefit commercially from the plant except through the onerous process of applying for and adhering to costly commercial Licences.
The law also classes Cannabis in the same category as alcohol and tobacco in terms of potential for harm and intoxication – when a Retail model emerges from our legislative morass it can be assumed that Cannabis will be regulated in a similar fashion. The presumption that cannabis is an intoxicating substance similar to alcohol is a glaringly wrong assumption – the laws pertaining to driving on THC etc will be challenged, but for now be careful in this regard.
In summary, the whole question of what constitutes Recreational v Medicinal use has not been accurately addressed and many of the assumptions about Cannabis are erroneous, but at least the bill gives us a stake in the ground – now we need to shape the laws and regulations to reflect the reality of our extant cannabis industry and to rapidly find a way our marginalised communities to benefit. The route for this might be through applying for permits on religious and cultural grounds.
We need to keep agitating for government to shape a legal framework that suits our reality and population. This is a step in the right direction, though we desperately need a giant leap!
George Joubert 8th March 2022