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Comprehension Passages
Rasta takes his pipe dream on appeal.
from The Star
RASTAMAN Garreth Prince is keeping his dream alive. Barred from becoming a lawyer because of his ritual daggasmoking, he is now asking the Constitutional Court for help.
Two courts, including the Appeal Court in Bloernfontein, have turned him down by refusing to interfere with the Cape Law Society's decision not to register him as a trainee attorney. The lawyers' body said his dagga convictions, together with his clearly stated Intention to continue smoking the plant because it was a religious requirement for Rastafarians, meant he could not become a lawyer.
Among other things, the Appeal Court held that if it made an exception for Rastafarians and allowed them to use dagga legally, people would join the Rastafarians simply to use the drug safe from prosecution.
Undeterred, however, Prince has taken his battle to the Constitutional Court, filing an application for leave to appeal against the earlier rulings.
In his application, Prince could have played it safe by not rocking the boat over dagga laws and perhaps urging a special exemption for Rastafarians. Instead, however, he throws the book at the anti-dagga establishment, with copies of recent judgments in other parts of the world that support his position.
Challenging head-on the law that makes dagga-smoking a crime, .Prince says scientific evidence included in reports by eminent scientists and some of the most respected bodies in the world show that tobacco and alcohol cause far greater harm to the individual and to society.
Prince quotes from a 1991 decision by Judge Leo van den Heever, in which she remarked: "Many people are not persuaded that dagga, moderately used, is more harmful than a whisky or a glass of wine. . ."
He also claims that any absolute ban on possessing and using dagga violates his right and that of other adult Rastafarians to choose a cultural life. it aiso infringes their right to equality, limits their right to choose their occupation, and violates their right to bodily and psychological integrity.
Before his case can be considered, Prince will have to explain to the Constitutional Court why he did not bring his application within 15 days of the Appeal Court judgment.
Prince, who should have had his papers filed by mid-June instead of midAugust, argues that he needed to do extensive research and had difficulty raising funds for the appeal.
He argues that he was obliged to bring the matter to the Constitutional Court because the Appeal Court "totally failed to apply the appropriate constitutional principles".
The Constitutional Court is considering whether to allow his appeal.
Questions
"Dagga" is a slang term. What would you call it in formal, standard English?
What decision is Garreth Prince appealing against?
What court is he appealing to?
Why might the court not listen to his case?
What was the main reason for the Appeal Court turning him down?
What do the following idiomatic phrases mean?
to play it safe (paragraph 5)
to rock the boat (paragraph 5)
to throw the book at (paragraph 5)
Add prefixes to the following words to form antonyms of the words in the passage.
register (paragraph 2)
decision (paragraph 2)
continue (paragraph 2)
religious (paragraph 2)
What part of speech is "harm" (paragraph 6) ?
Use "harm" as another part of speech in a sentence of your own to show its meaning.
Explain the usage of the following:
The ellipsis (...) in the seventh paragraph.
The quotation marks in paragraph 11.
Why 15 (paragraph 9) is written in numerals.
The hyphen is used in "mid-June" (paragraph 10)
What scientific evidence has prince gathered to help his appeal?
The passage makes use of legal jargon. What do the following words, or phrases mean?
filing an application (paragraph 4)
leave to appeal (paragraph 4)
judgments (paragraph 5)
Explain the pun in the title of the article, "Rasta takes his pipe dream on appeal"
