The Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants (GFPPP) is a platform for farmers of coca, cannabis, and opium to discuss the implications and alternatives concerning trends and discourses in today's global drug policies. The GFPPP aims at providing the global debate on drug policy reform in general and the UNGASS 2016 in particular, the perspective from farmers communities involved in the cultivation of coca, opium poppy and cannabis. Their website provides background information, news, articles, and publications relevant to this initiative.
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Women and Drugs in Myanmar
A primer
Dania Putri & Ernestien JensemaTransnational Institute (TNI)
March 2022What’s the role and position of women in opium cultivation areas in Myanmar? What is life like for women who use drugs in Myanmar? This primer maps out the gendered dynamics of drug policy in Myanmar, drawing from on-the-ground conversations with women involved in the drugs market. When it comes to drugs and related policies, women and their experiences are often rendered invisible, or presented merely as an afterthought even though in many cases women tend to face harsher effects of punitive policies. This primer emphasises the need for a rights-based approach for these specific populations of women – women using drugs, women dealing drugs or couriering (sometimes to support personal use), and women engaging in the drugs market through opium cultivation.
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Why coca leaf, not coffee, may always be Colombia’s favourite cash crop
One of the least controversial proposals in the FARC peace accords is the idea of crop substitution and alternative development in these regions
Iban De RementeriaThe Conversation (US)
Sunday, March 19, 2017Colombia’s current peace process is facing numerous challenges. In a country that has suffered the worst impacts of the international drug war, one main dilemma is this: what to do with rural regions which have specialised in producing coca leaf, the main ingredient in one of the world’s most lucrative products? The uncomfortable truth about international agricultural markets is that only in illicit ones are poor local producers able to sell their product for a price that actually covers the cost of inputs: land, labour and capital. In a globalised world, illegal crops such as coca, cannabis and poppies are poor farmers’ rational response to the ruinously low prices of imported subsidised farm products.
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Confronting Colombia’s coca boom requires patience and a commitment to the peace accords
Troublingly, there have been reports of forced eradication in communities that are either negotiating or have signed crop substation agreements with the government under the terms of the accord
Adam IsacsonWashington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
March 13, 2017Colombia is in the midst of a coca boom, perhaps its largest ever. The coca boom’s causes are complex, and Colombia’s government is hoping that the U.S. government will respond in a manner that recognizes this complexity and joins it in pursuing a lasting solution within the peace accords’ framework. Colombian media have expressed worry that, with a conservative U.S. administration and Congress, the bilateral relationship might once again “narcotize.”
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Joint statement
On the implementation of the Peace Agreement in the territories with coca, poppy and marijuana crops in Colombia
Dejusticia (Colombia), Transnational Institute, Washington Office on Latin America & OCDI-INDEPAZ
March 13, 2017The signatory organizations call upon the Colombian Government and FARC-EP to respect producer communities, to address their concerns, and to build with them a spirit of trust and consultation, in order to guarantee that this implementation phase advances the well being of all communities.
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The Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants (GFPPP)
Transnational Institute (TNI)
October 2016The voices of affected communities involved in the cultivation of coca leaf, opium poppy and cannabis plants are lacking in the global debate on drug policy reform in general and were at risk of being excluded from the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) 2016 on The World Drug Problem. In January 2016 the Transnational Institute (TNI) gathered a group of approximately 60 farmers and farmers’ representatives in the Netherlands for the Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants (GFPPP), facilitating a discussion of their views on and experiences with illicit crop control policies.
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To win the war on drugs, stop brutalising farmers who grow them
Reform of drug policy is essential to protect the rights of cultivating communities, and ensure they make a living from their land
Pien MetaalThe Guardian (UK)
Tuesday, April 19, 2016Reform of international drug control is urgently needed. The war on drugs has left a trail of suffering and criminality in its wake and has manifestly failed to achieve its objectives. The UN special session of the general assembly (UNGASS) presents an opportunity. Many reformers put drug users at the centre of changes to international drug policies, but the people growing the plants producing the substances they consume are often overlooked. Farmers’ livelihoods and communities are inherently linked to reform of international drug policies. For hundreds of thousands of farmers’ families, existing crop control laws and practices cause conflict and poverty. (See: Contributions of grower representatives at UNGASS)
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Cash crops poisoned in Pondoland
Police helicopters spray marijuana plantations every year
Ground Up (South Africa)
April 7, 2016The villagers keep watch from January, waiting for police helicopters to thud over the hills. Every year, for nearly three decades, their plantations have been poisoned towards the end of summer, right before harvest, leaving behind fields of withered stalks. Marijuana farming sustains entire communities in the rural Eastern Cape, an important cash crop in a deeply impoverished subsistence economy. It has also been illegal under South African law since 1929. For more than 60 years the state has conducted regular eradication programmes but failed to halt the practice. (See also: Battle to stop dagga spraying | Dagga spraying: police ‘expert’ accused of bad science)
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The Heemskerk Declaration
Final declaration of the Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants
Global Forum of Producers of Prohibited Plants (GFPPP)
January 21, 2016In a global meeting small scale farmers of cannabis, coca and opium from 14 countries in Heemskerk, the Netherlands, discussed their contribution to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS). The UNGASS will discuss all aspects of global drug control policies, including the worldwide ban on the cultivation of coca, poppy and cannabis, an issue the Global Farmers Forum demands that their voices be heard and taken into account.
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Third Myanmar Opium Farmers’ Forum
Current drug control polices in South-east Asia are repressive and criminalise opium farmers, greatly affecting the lives of communities cultivating opium. Most policy responses – including from some armed opposition groups – focus on eradication of poppy fields and the implementation of strict bans on opium cultivation. The Third Myanmar Opium Farmers’ Forum was held in September 2015 in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar. It brought together around 30 representatives of local communities involved in poppy cultivation in Myanmar’s major opium growing regions: Chin State, Kachin State, northern and southern Shan State and Kayah State. Farmers and community representatives from Chin, Kachin, Kayah, Kayan, Pa-O, Shan and Ta-ang (Palaung) ethnic communities took part in the forum.
READ MORE...Download the report (PDF)Read the statement (PDF) -
Cannabis in the Caribbean
Presentation by Junior "Spirit" Cottle
Alonzo Stephen, videographerTuesday, May 12, 2015Patrick Junior Leon Cottle, co-founder of the St.Vincent and the Grenadines Cannabis Revivial Committee (SVGCRC), adresses in this video the group attending the 13th Informal Drug Policy Dialogue, organised by TNI, WOLA and Intercambios-Puerto Rico in San Juan (Puerto Rico) between 23 and 25 of April. Since he was unable to attend the Dialogue, he spoke with this video-message on the issue of cannabis cultivation in the region, and the importance to take into account the farmers perspective in the debate about cannabis regulation.
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