Statement from Tony Budden of Hemporium: A letter in response to Accusations and assumptions tabled by Andre Du Plessis It has come to my attention that I have been included in a document prepared by Andre Du Plessis of the South African National Cannabis Working Group, now consisting mostly of himself, titled DaggaGate wherein I am accused of being part of some conspiracy to steal South Africas cannabis from the people with the help of Jules and Myrtle of the Dagga Couple, Advocate Stransham-Ford, leading Counsel in the constitutional court challenge, and the Dr Mario Ambrosini, co-author of the Medical Innovations Bill. We are all inserted into some devious plan that has been imagined, apparently working with Plandai, a Biotech company that tried to enter the market locally last year, to monopolise and corporatise the South African Cannabis Industry. While all of the above is presented as fact in Mr Du Plessis vitriolic document, the only proof given is his constant requests for the reader to jump to his conclusions. The references given for my involvement are a link to our companys, Hemporium, webshop selling hemp clothing and accessories, and a web article that alludes to some South African conglomerate learning to grow medical pot from the Canadians. Talk about a smoking gun.... I am happy to totally disclose my brief interaction with Plandai. Roger Duffield and I spoke several times last year when they were proposing to get involved in post-legalization South Africa as they wanted to include industrial cannabis, my main area of expertise, in their plans. They were also keen to associate themselves with Hemporium as we are internationally recognised as industry leaders due to our nearly 20 years of promoting the use of industrial cannabis/hemp in South Africa. I did my due diligence and found some issues that I could not align with, and declined the offer of any involvement. The last I heard from Roger was around the middle of 2014 when he said that they were no longer pursuing a cannabis venture in South Africa as the legislation was taking to long to change and the Department of Health had not accepted their proposal for their plans on Senteeko. They had decided to focus their energy and investment in Uruguay where more options were available due to the legalization of the plant. I had not heard anything from or about them since then until now with Andre releasing his slanderous document. Due to Hemporiums profile, this was not the first or last time we have been approached by an international company looking to get a foothold in the South African market, but we have yet to entertain any offer seriously as we are still focussed on keeping it as local as possible and until legislation has been amended, we are not in the position to make any offers to anyone. We are continuing our role of building awareness around this plant in as positive a way as possible through creating good products and education, and finding ways of collaborating with others with similar intentions. As for Jules and Myrtles involvement in this alleged evil scheme to steal your Cannabis, they were one of the first to warn me not to get involved with Plandai and were vehemently opposed to them getting a foothold in our industry. As far as I know, their visit to the plantation was not to sign and midnight contracts but rather to get evidence to discredit and disprove the claims Plandai was making about their extraction facility. This became no longer necessary when Plandai withdrew from Cannabis is South Africa. This couple have certainly proved their commitment to a home-grown South African industry and are far from deserving of these kinds of accusations and slandering. They deserve our support. Advocate Stransham-Ford and Dr Ambrosini, as far as I know, engaged with Mr Duffield with regards to getting some support for the Medical Innovation Bill and the Constitutional court challenge (yes, this does cost a lot of money), but when it was clear that it was not going to come from them, withdrew as well. I have no evidence of any wrong-doing by Plandai, but declined due to them choosing a direction and system that is not in alignment with our principles. I agree with Andres assertion that we need to be vigilant. There are many companies that wish to get a foothold in South Africa and others that wish to control the market and are willing to sign with International conglomerates in order to achieve this, in exchange for $ earning shares. Saying that though, the industry will need investment in order to get established, and can share that there are not many local companies openly prepared to back this potentially game-changing industry. Raising finance from countries where the plant has already reclaimed its legitimate legal place and who have experience in setting up systems and and infrastructure is something that we will consider of course. What is promised in return is the issue, and any monopolies are to definitely be avoided. There is space in this for all for sure. Andre has a history of presenting assumptions as fact to support his agenda, a point I raised with him after the release of the SANCWG Position Paper on Cannabis in South Africa. This DaggaGate conspiracy is a complete farce and quite frankly slanderous. It is disheartening to see him spending his time trying to bring others down who are working hard to bring liberation to the plant, even if it is not how he proposes it is done, instead of pushing his agenda on the basis of solutions, facts and positivity. He is trying to create division and suspicion in an industry that needs to come together now to focus on the final push towards legitimacy. We dont have to agree on everything or have the same style of presenting our proposals, but the concept of cutting people down who are doing good work with good intention in order to further your own agenda is one that leaves me feeling very discouraged, especially when presented without any proof and pure conjecture. Keep it positive. This is not the time to divide. Teach each other and present your proposals and opinions in a way that offers solutions. Vigilance is necessary, and discernment, but seriously, enough with the paranoia. Tony Budden Hemporium.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 07:56:00 +0000
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