Cannabis: evil weed or miracle drug?
In 2012, a jubilant Kelly McQue announced on Facebook that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer eight months before and had healed herself – without any conventional Western medical interventions or having a health qualification of any kind – using cannabis oil
Kelly wanted more people to know about the powerful health benefits of Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa, the two main species of medical cannabis, which was then still illegal and treated as dangerous, damaging and highly addictive.
“Cannabis was used medicinally for thousands of years in many cultures before it was outlawed about 100 years ago,” Kelly says. And, even though South Africa is home to some of the best outdoor-grown cannabis in the world (Platteland has spotted dagga plants thriving in many a home garden over the past seven years!) its medicinal and recreational use was treated as shameful and something to be kept secret. Fear of the law played a part, but fear of social judgement certainly was a factor too.
The responses to Kelly’s Facebook post eight years ago were varied – there was a lot of surprise, some support and a fair number of questions, but also a distinct silence from some
