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South Africa Set To Legalize Recreational Use By 2023

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The country is looking to the industry to help revitalize an economy wrecked by Covid.

South Africa is lining up to join the list of recreational cannabis companies by 2023. The country is now considering a bill to legalize the possession, cultivation, and use of cannabis for recreational use with this date in mind.

The reason, besides the medical market and thriving underground black market? The country’s economy is suffering from the effects of the Pandemic.

This one factor is likely to be the driver in stepping up the plans in many countries – and far beyond Africa, in finally engaging the cannabis reform discussion at the recreational end of the discussion.

In South Africa’s case, this is also likely to have an impact not only on the domestic economy as well as exports, particularly to Europe, but other countries in Africa.

The Shifting International Recreational Picture

By 2023, at least two countries in Europe will be in the middle of a recreational trial. Holland’s recreational model will presumably have had time to bake, and France will be in the thick of its own medical experiment. Germany will also presumably have moved forward on its own cultivation plans.

That creates a lot of markets looking for certified product. Further, it begins to create a multi-use market where it is not only medical in the picture. And that all must come from someplace.

South African firms are beginning to export to Europe. The German market, however, by 2023, will not be the only one on the table. And that is potentially where enterprising South African firms might make a difference – especially given the slow pace of development of cultivation across the EU and that it has been slowed by Covid.

And then of course there is the appeal of canna tourism. With a recreational market in full swing, the South African economy will potentially become a place where the entire discussion will take a new turn.

Regardless, no matter what direction the industry begins to morph into, the development is a positive one and promises many sunny returns, no matter how they begin to trickle in.

Be sure to attend the International Cannabis Business Conference this year in Berlin when it returns in July.

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