Fields of Green for ALL – Keeping the Human Rights Flame Alive in South Africa’s Cannabis Struggle

In the long, winding story of cannabis reform in South Africa, some names become landmarks. Gareth Prince is one of them. His years of persistence helped deliver the 2018 Constitutional Court judgment that finally recognised the right of adults to cultivate and use cannabis in private. That victory changed the legal landscape forever.

Yet the work did not end there.

While courtrooms and parliamentary processes move at their own pace, organisations like Fields of Green for ALL have kept the broader human-rights conversation alive, day after day, year after year. Their website, fieldsofgreenforall.org.za, is more than an information hub. It is a living record of a movement that refuses to let the plant be reduced to a corporate commodity or a half-finished legal experiment.

Founded by Myrtle Clarke and the late Julian Stobbs (affectionately known as The Dagga Couple) after their 2010 arrest, Fields of Green for ALL was formally established in 2013. From the beginning their focus has been clear: the human and constitutional rights of all people to use, possess, cultivate and trade in cannabis. Not just private use. Not just medical. Not just hemp. All of it — for ordinary South Africans.

Their vision is straightforward and ambitious: a world free from criminal penalties related to cannabis, and a trade free from over-regulation that shuts out small growers, traditional communities and everyday citizens. They work for evidence-based policy where human rights sit at the centre, not as an afterthought.

What makes Fields of Green for ALL distinctive is their combination of strategic litigation, education, community support and international advocacy. They are the only cannabis activist organisation in the world to hold Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). That status gives them a formal voice in global drug-policy discussions — a rare platform for a grassroots South African non-profit.

At home they continue to challenge continued arrests, support people who encounter the police, push for sensible post-prohibition policing guidelines, and insist that any emerging cannabis economy must be inclusive. Their Full Spectrum Manifesto, their work on the Four Platforms of Cannabis Use, and their ongoing Police Reform Project all point in the same direction: regulation that serves people, not just big players.

This is where the connection to Gareth Prince’s recent efforts becomes natural. When Prince and others returned to court seeking a halt to unnecessary arrests and a fairer framework that does not exclude traditional and small-scale growers, they were speaking the same language Fields of Green for ALL has been speaking for more than a decade. The quiet agreement reached on 31 July 2026 — that the parties would use the next 30 court days to work towards a way forward — is exactly the kind of practical, rights-centred progress the organisation has long advocated.

Prince’s legal battles opened constitutional doors. Fields of Green for ALL has spent years making sure those doors stay open for everyone, and that the people who walk through them are not left exposed to continued harassment or economic exclusion.

Visit their site and you will find resources on knowing your rights, updates on litigation, educational material, and clear calls for community support. The organisation runs entirely on volunteer energy and public donations. Every contribution helps them keep monitoring arrests, supporting affected people, engaging policymakers, and holding the line for an inclusive cannabis future.

In a country still wrestling with the gap between the 2018 judgment and daily reality on the ground, organisations like Fields of Green for ALL matter. They remind us that reform is not a single court date or a single piece of legislation. It is sustained, stubborn, human work.

Gareth Prince’s name is written into the constitutional history of cannabis in South Africa. Fields of Green for ALL continues to write the everyday chapters — the ones about dignity, access, community protection and the simple idea that this plant should serve all South Africans.

Explore their work, read their manifesto, and see how you can stand with them:

The struggle continues, but it continues with clear eyes and open hands.