Our manifesto, called the Full Spectrum Model for the Legal Regulation of Cannabis in South Africa, has been the cornerstone of our activism work, and forms the foundation from which we constantly refer back to in the various discussions we’ve had with stakeholders.  Whilst the manifesto in its current form has been available to the public for some time, we wish to present an updated final version to government in the coming months, in light of developments since we last published.

The funds from our GoFundMe campaign have enabled us to revise the content with our local and international contributors, as well as bring in professional copy editors and designers for readability. We understand this document is by no means a casual read, and definitely requires a solid few hours of your time, so we made it easier for you with an Executive Summary, which succinctly covers the entire manifesto in a few pages.

One of the key topics we discuss is the concept of “Hubs”, which is a cooperative farmer’s model, found in many countries across different agricultural crops. Hubs are local, decentralized and democratic platforms that take care of quality control, pricing, crop certification, tax collection, anonymous auctions, warehousing, and management of by-products. Hubs implement policies on the ground by offering services required by the regulations.

We believe hubs are a critical piece of the puzzle in upcoming Cannabis regulations, and can create a more inclusive model with small-scale farmers being able to actively participate in this industry.

Interestingly we’re not the only the ones talking about hubs. Under proposed new governance regulations meant to curb irregular state expenditure, Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has announced the development of “District Hubs”. Their proposed hubs will pool critical and scarce skills to benefit local municipalities.  Fields of Green for ALL will be standing by when this initiative inevitably intersects with the local Cannabis industry.