Rastafarians in the popular Garden Route town of Knysna hope to bring a new meaning to 'High Tea' when they open South Africa's first 'dagga' coffee shop next month.

Tea, coffee, muffins, chocolates and even ice-cream containing dagga, or marijuana, will be on sale to visitors looking to experience an alternative side of the world-famous Garden Route.

Situated just outside of Knysna, the 150-strong Rastafarian community of Judah Square sees the coffee shop as the key to their future. Levi Bailey Tafari, a local priest in the Rastafari order of Boboshanti, said he hoped that the shop will place them firmly on the tourist map.

Knysna has always been known for it's greenery
Talking to the Cape Times, he said: "This shop has been my dream for about 10 years. We Rastas in South Africa were born poor. It is only the young people who have education. So we have decided to push ourselves onto a level with other people. If we don't do things like open this shop we are going to stay in the gutter."

Dagga is officially illegal in South Africa, but police have apparently turned a blind eye to the Knysna rastafarian's religious practice of smoking marijuana.

While community tour guide Leo and Knysna tourism maintain that it is just "a plain simple coffee shop", tourists to the Garden Route could soon be seeing green in more ways than one.

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