Glossary
HPCSA
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The Health Professions Council of South Africa — registration and professional-ethics regulator for medical practitioners.
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) is the statutory body that registers medical practitioners, dentists, psychologists, and other health professionals in South Africa. Registration with HPCSA is mandatory for any doctor prescribing medical cannabis or filing Section 21 applications — there is no separate cannabis-specific licence.
**Registration categories** — relevant categories include independent medical practitioner (general practitioner), specialist (e.g. neurology, psychiatry, pain medicine), and supplementary diagnostic and therapeutic auxiliary categories. Any HPCSA-registered medical practitioner can prescribe medical cannabis if they have the clinical competence to assess the case and file the Section 21 application — bandwidth and experience vary widely.
**HPCSA Rule 27** is the ethical rule governing professional advertising. It prohibits therapeutic claims, before-after comparative testimonials, and direct advertising of prescription medicines to the public — which intersects with **§18C of the Medicines Act** (no direct-to-public advertising of prescription medicines). This is why Docto24 content is framed educationally rather than promotionally, why we do not name specific products on patient-facing pages, and why we do not publish patient before-after stories.
**Distinction from SAHPRA** — HPCSA regulates the doctor; SAHPRA regulates the medicine. A doctor must be HPCSA-registered to prescribe; a medicine must be SAHPRA-registered (or Section 21-authorised) to be lawfully dispensed. Both apply to every cannabis prescription in SA.
Related terms
- SAHPRAThe South African Health Products Regulatory Authority — the regulator of medicines and medical devices.
- Section 21SAHPRA authorisation for access to unregistered medicines — the primary legal pathway for medical cannabis in SA.
- Medicines and Related Substances Act 101 of 1965The foundational SA statute governing all medicines, scheduling, and the Section 21 unregistered-medicines mechanism.