The Cannabis Embassy Campus Vienna is a popular education programme on drug policy advocacy & anti-prohibition literacy.
🌱✨ A dynamic and enlightening learning experience exploring the rich history and future of the United Nations drug control & global grassroots cannabis civil society movements.
The first edition was held on 13 March 2024 at Wohlmut Arts Centre, Vienna, Austria, a day prior to the start of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs’ 67th meeting & High Level Segment.
The Campus sessions were attended by participants from Aotearoa-New Zealand, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Italy, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
2024 Courses:
Session 1 International Law + Stories & history of the global grassroots cannabis civil society movement
→ International Law & United Nations 101 (45 min.)
- International Law
- Self-executing treaties
- Inter-governmental organisations
- The United Nations family
- How the UN is organised
- Not all IGO is UN
- UN drug control agencies
- The International Narcotics Control Board
- UN health agency: WHO
- Other UN agencies concerned with plants and people using them
→ International Cannabis Law – advanced (1h)
- Analysis of the legal regime for cannabis contained in the drug control instruments (1961 Single Convention, 1971 Convention, 1988 UN Convention).
→ Anti-prohibitionist activism at the UN, 1998–2024 (1h30)
- Before 1998: first grassroots cannabis opposition to drug treaties (1964, 1990) and lead-up to UNGASS 1998 (1987, 1988, 1990)
- UNGASS 1998
- Early 2000s: Changes in UN drug control apparatus & birth of civil society movements
- 2008 and the one year delay
- 2009: a new recycled 10-year anti-drug plan
- 2012 to 2016: of Cages & Kaffeeschnüffler
Session 1 Cover
UN drug control: timeline 1945–2030
Drug control treaties related to Cannabis
Two leading activists: Farid & Joep (RIP) at the UN, Vienna 2013
UN drug control apparatus: Treaty mandates and delegated mandates
UN drug control apparatus: nominations of INCB members
The 3 WHO ECDD reports on cannabis
Drug Peace March: Vienna 2003
Single Convention on Narcotic drugs: all legal regimes for Cannabis
Single Convention on Narcotic drugs: the legal regime for adult use
Worldwide cannabis activists at the UN, Vienna 2014
Single Convention on Narcotic drugs: legal regimes
Activists solidarity in Pretoria, South Africa
Kaffeeschnüffler action in front of the UN, Vienna 2014
Kaffeeschnüffler action in front of the UN, Vienna 2014
Session 2 Legacy & Biopiracy: Cannabis, International Law, & Intellectual Property
→ People, Plants, and Intellectual Property (IP): a short History (1h)
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Basic terms & definitions (based on two WIPO documents)
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Introduction to the history of treaties on “genetic resources”
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Plants and plant’s reproductive materials = seeds & cuts & genomic information
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History of treaties in the field (videos by Geoff Tansey & Guy Kasler)
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Basic types of classic IP (patents, trademarks, trade secrets, copyright) and new forms/issues (plant variety protection rights, DSI)
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What is Biopiracy? The value of GR & TKs: Immaterial assets & specific modalities of access; What is bioprospecting; When bioprospecting turn into Biopiracy.
→ Current International Law landscape of IP Privileges on Legacy & Craft Cannabis (1h15)
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) & Nagoya Protocol
- FAO’s Plant Treaty/Seed Treaty (International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture – ITPGRFA)
- World Trade Organisation/TRIPs Agreement
- Introduction to World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) [the UNODC of IP]
- UPOV [the INCB of seeds / sometimes called Monsanto treaty] and Breeders’ Privileges (Plant Variety Protection Rights)
- Digital Sequence Information (Int’l law on GRs II)
- Other: Patents, Human Rights, CITES
→ Aotearoa Case Study (1h – By Jenna-Rose Astwood, Tū Wairua project)
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Concern w/ biopiracy: Protection of TK & TK holders/practitionners
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Appropriation
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Protection of biological heritage
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Lack of protective mechanisms
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A discussion on the use of term “GR”.
→ GRATK Treaty, the IGC and its treaty-making work (45 min.)
→ Conclusion: Cannabis, TK, GR, and us – open discussion (cancelled)