
Together with members of our international team, Fields of Green for ALL is raising funds for Myrtle, our international allies, and Paul-Michael Keichel, the head of our legal team, to travel to Vienna for the 66th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2023.
The GoFundMe Campaign is now open for your donations.
Please click HERE to donate.
At Fields of Green for ALL we are often asked about the relevance of our international work because, surely, the UN is an irrelevant old dinosaur? Well, considering that Cannabis was first prohibited, worldwide, by the League of Nations in 1928 (on the suggestion of ours and the Egyptian government) and it was that institution that was the precursor to the UN, it is an institution that has member states that still have a lot to answer for in 2023.
When Michael Krawitz from the Veterans Action Council, USA, first attended the UN in Vienna in the late 90s, there were 2 people in attendance from civil society. When Jules & Myrtle were there in 2020, there were 2000 of us!

Cannabis was finally rescheduled in 2020, on the recommendation of the WHO. Our allies were right there from the beginning and, although it created all sorts of nonsense around CBD, the Single Convention of 1961 remains unchanged (much like our own Drug & Drugs Trafficking Act of 1992). We have made significant progress through the rescheduling process and Cannabis continues to lead the way for more significant drug policy reform.
This will be Myrtle’s 6th CND and she is really looking forward to meeting up with all of our colleagues in person again. As we all know, there is much more progress in person.
Summary of our International campaign so far in 2023 (The Year of the OG):
- Fields of Green for ALL has applied to host a side event in Vienna this year. Our event is titled Cannabis law reform leading the way towards more effective drug control and the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
- We have endorsed a call for the development of a United Nations code of conduct for engaging with civil society organisations.
- We will be attending the 2023 ECOSOC Partnership Forum and are looking forward to attending a side event titled “The central role of civil society in drug policies, COVID-19 and achieving the 2030 Agenda”. This event will be hosted by our international allies the International Drug Policy Consortium and The Vienna NGO Commitee.
- Earlier this month we attended the 18 January UNCTAD workshop on industrial Cannabis, held online from the UN offices in Geneva. We were very pleased to see many South Africans in attendance. Both Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli from our international team and Ayanda Bam from Friends of Hemp delivered powerful and groundbreaking presentations.
- We are preparing to submit questions for the annual Informal Dialogues held in Vienna each year. This is where the heads of the INCB (International Narcotics Control Board), the WHO and the Chair of CND take questions from civil society.
- We continue to work with the Cannabis Africana project spearheaded by the University of Bristol and University Of Cape Town, looking into drugs and development in Africa.
Donating to our GoFundMe Campaign will allow us to continue this important work. Please click here to donate.
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