Over the last 6 weeks we have been “soft launching” Fields of Green for ALL’s Dagga Private Clubs Initiative. We’ve been discussing the nitty gritty with the public at events and helping members of The Green Network to lay the groundwork for forming clubs.

DPCinitiative_PRESS_RELEASE

This is a model first tried in Europe but is essentially as old of the use of the Cannabis plant itself. Our favourite plant has a way of bringing people together and uniting diverse groups within our Cannabis culture. We are very excited that clubs are starting to open in South Africa and wish all pioneers well in their endeavours.

Let’s do this the right way! No dodgy franchises, mythical permits or strange interpretations of the law required!

With the internationally lauded “Privacy Judgement” of September 2018 we are confident that this model will endure after Cannabis regulations have been made into law in South Africa and Fields of Green for ALL will be advocating for this to be one of the most important and most logical consequences of the judgement.

Find out more by joining The Green Network , supporting us by buying an info pack (including our Dagga Private Clubs booklet) from our shop and getting up to speed with the international trends & research through our Resources & Downloads page.

To lay the foundation, Fields of Green for ALL, together with our local affiliate companies and organisations and our international affiliate organisation, the Knowmad Institut, wish to make the following declaration:

Download The Dagga Private Club Document

We, the people who use Cannabis throughout South Africa who are the keepers of traditional knowledge of the plant, have been freed after 110 years of the State-led violations of our right to privacy and our dignity as human beings after the Constitutional Court’s judgement “decriminalising the use or possession of Cannabis by an adult in private for that adult person’s personal consumption in private; and the “decriminalisation” of the cultivation of Cannabis by an adult in a private place for that adult’s personal consumption in private” .

Facing the apparent reluctance from the authorities to timeously develop and implement a sensible and sustainable legal framework with regards to Cannabis cultivation for personal use, as required by the Constitutional Court’s judgement – and thus our concerns as to the ability of our authorities to protect, preserve and enhance our rights, we are:

• Aware that the right to privacy can be exercised as a collective right ,
• Aware that, besides our right to privacy, it is also our right to equality, our right to the highest attainable standard of health, our freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion, expression, and information, our freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, our freedom from torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment, our right to a fair trial, and our right to  remedy and reparation for the gross violations of human rights, that are in the balance,

• Determined to make use of our freedom of association and peaceful assembly to ensure that the rights of our people are respected,

• Committed to ensuring that the exercise of our rights and freedoms conforms to the law,

• Resolved to collaborate with the authorities in order to gain the recognition of our society as a whole,

• Acknowledging that trade in Cannabis remains completely illegal in South Africa,

We initiate our own model of non-trade regulation and control, affirming its non-profit nature, and framing it in the collective exercise of our rights to personal production, retention, and use of Cannabis,

We call this model a Dagga Private Club and declare that it aims to prevent us from being involved in illegal activities, and ensuring that certain requirements concerning public health and safety are being fulfilled.

We are confident that, like Cannabis Social Clubs in Spain, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland and USA, local authorities will have an interest in designing regulations based on this model, which can enable them to ensure a transparent and safe framework, prevent the access of minors to Cannabis, and help redirect public expenditure on law enforcement to real safety priorities.