South Africa's Rastafarian community says a court ruling on cannabis, is a victory for their cultural rights.

The nation's top court says adults are allowed to grow and smoke cannabis in private, but experts say the new rule may be difficult to police.

One of the Rastafarians who is also a qualified lawyer Gareth Prince, says he has been prevented from joining the Law Society, because of his culture and daily use of cannabis.

Prince says for twenty years he has been fighting the South African courts to decriminalize the use of cannabis, saying equality laws should also protect his way of life.

“The greater victory is for the people of South Africa in the sense that because Rastafari is always advocated that cannabis is for the healing of not just the South African people but for all people in the world”, he said.

He continued by saying; “and our philosophy is that we must make use of what we have in order to get what we want and we have an abundance of cannabis”. 

The Rastafarian community in Cape Town says cannabis is a religious and cultural sacrament, and they say they were victims of police raids in the past.