Page 39 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 9

Fields of Green for ALL • Collectively Reforming South African Cannabis Laws

Foreword

This Manifesto is a uniquely South African Dagga as “unscientific and wrong” and that it
solution to the injustice that is Dagga / Cannabis constitutes a violation of our Human Rights. Our
prohibition. It is for you, the South African Dagga unresolved High Court case is the key to crucial
user, cultivator, trader, legislator and policy maker. evidence showing both the ever-present harms
On behalf of Fields of Green for ALL, we present to of prohibition and the beneficial properties of a
South Africa (and the world) an evidence-based set remarkable plant. If we find South Africa’s new
of ethics and scenarios that we wish to see being Cannabis laws and regulations to be lacking in
used as a foundation and guide for new Laws and evidence, integrity, foresight and Constitutional
Regulations around Dagga in South Africa. voracity, we will continue with our original
Constitutional Court challenge. Prohibitive costs
Six years in the making, the final stretch over of litigation could be mitigated by continued
the last few months has been particularly government engagement with the real experts –
challenging since Jules was murdered. These are the existing Cannabis industry in South Africa.
also exciting times for the Cannabis plant and
her community. The plant and her people have Although the draft Cannabis for Private Purposes
been an unwavering source of strength for me at Bill has suffered almost unilateral rejection from
a time when I am broken. When I speak of “we” those with insight, there has been some progress
and “our” I speak together with the spirit of The made with discussions around a National Cannabis
Dagga Couple, our amazingly dedicated Fields Master Plan for South Africa and this is promising.
of Green for ALL Team and all our supporters
gathered along this journey to free us from Dagga What remains is for this Manifesto to be widely
prohibition. read and discussed. It is our wish that our voices
will be heard, loud & clear, with the return of the
It is a matter of utmost urgency that the South Dagga plant to its rightful position in our lives,
African Police Service be ordered to respect the sharing our planet with no fear of persecution,
Constitutional Court judgment of September 2018 whatsoever.
and stop ALL arrest, harassment, profiling and
incarceration of those who possess and cultivate Thank you to everyone involved, from the bottom
Dagga in private spaces. This needs to be made of my heart.
clear by means of an unambiguous directive issued
by the highest in command in order that inclusive
discussions may to proceed in good faith.

This Manifesto is written with The Trial of the
Plant in mind. In the course of the 3 editions over Myrtle Clarke
the last 6 years, we have revisited our original Managing Director
Affidavit submitted to the Pretoria High Court Fields of Green for ALL NPC
in 2011, where we described the prohibition of Remaining Half of The Dagga Couple

CANNABIS IN SOUTH AFRICA • THE PEOPLE’S PLANT • A Full-Spectrum Manifesto For Policy Reform