Fields of Green for All has launched South Africa’s first civil-society based police reform project.  The research programme is part of the organization’s Stop the Cops campaign, and is being done in conjunction with the University of Cape Town and its criminology expert Dr Simon Howell.

FGFA CEO Myrtle Clark says the project, titled Reforming Cannabis Policy from Within: A Data-Driven Approach, is the “first real effort at police reform” and “aims to ‘address the ongoing misalignment between south Africa’s evolving cannabis legislation, notably the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act – ad current law enforcement practices”.

FGFA intends using its presence at the Cannabis Expo to raise funds for the project, for which a detailed funding proposal can be downloaded HERE. 

Clarke says that despite the Act’s  intent to decriminalise certain aspects of cannabis use and cultivation for private purposes, arrests for possession, use, and cultivation continue, often reflecting outdated policing protocols and inconsistent legal interpretations.

She says these enforcement discrepancies disproportionately affect the poor, exacerbate existing inequalities and perpetuate racism within the criminal justice system.

The project seeks to bridge this gap by systematically collecting, analysing, and utilising data from individuals arrested for cannabis-related offences, gathered through Fields of Green for ALL’s Stop the Cops initiative—a confidential hotline designed to support those affected and document enforcement practices—as well as other sources such as crime data collected by UCT’s Centre of Criminology.

The collected data has been compiled through a structured digital intake process, capturing key information such as arrest locations, offence types, police conduct, and socio-economic backgrounds of those arrested.

Clarke says the key kicker in the project is that the data will be leveraged to “ directly engage with SAPS management so as to reform the current directives driving arrests, from within.”

The research outputs include policy briefs, academic publications, stakeholder engagement reports, and interactive data visualisations intended to  provide policymakers and law enforcement “with tangible recommendations for aligning policing practices with legislative intent, thereby reducing wrongful arrests and mitigating socio-economic harm. “

Through public dissemination and strategic advocacy, this project has the potential to catalyse systemic change, ensuring that South Africa’s cannabis laws are implemented in a manner that upholds human rights, legal consistency, and social justice.

FGFA says the project will cost more than the organization’s resources can support, and is therefore appealing to the cannabis community to help provide funding.

“Funding this project is imperative for ensuring a data-driven, evidence-based approach to cannabis policing reform in South Africa” says the organization.

“By supporting this research then, funders will directly contribute to the generation of critical insights that will inform legislative bodies, law enforcement agencies, and civil society actors about the real-world implications of current enforcement strategies”.

FGFA will be exhibiting in the main hall at the Expo, visit them there to find out more - or just to say hi!

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