From 26 September to 1 October 2025, Barcelona hosted the UNESCO’s World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development — also known as MONDIACULT 2025 — the largest world summit on culture, from now on held every four years. The Conference coincided with the “1925–2025 Centenary of Cannabis Prohibition” memorial date of 29 September. The Cannabis Embassy coordinated the action of allied civil society stakeholders from around the world, bringing the joint message of grassroots cannabis communities: Cannabis-related cultural practices are part of a living and diverse Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). After 100 years of global prohibition and bio-cultural erasure, the time has come to safeguard and uphold locally our traditional & legacy living cannabis cultures.

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Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, Farid Ghehiouèche, and Sébastien Béguerie at the UNESCO MONDIACULT 2025 Conference in Barcelona.

On 1 October 2025, Audray Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, closed the three-days high-level MONDIACULT summit stating that “it is perhaps only through culture that it is possible today to unite and find consensus.” Amidst tense geopolitical times and increased threats to international human rights law, this sentence echoed the consensus of the Conference: stepping-up the defense of cultural rights and the right to culture, but also of cross-cultural respect and exchanges as the only dignified way forward in our troubled times.

The +2500 participants from 160 countries (including many civil society stakeholders) applauded Azoulay’s words. More importantly, the more than 100 Ministers of Culture codified Azoulay’s words into an actionable policy “Outcome Document – Culture Ministers’ Commitment” advancing clear objectives:

“[Culture is] a component and pillar of just, peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable development, both as the human right of everyone to take part in cultural life and as a global public good. […] Culture contributes to the wellbeing of all, to cultural diversity and cultural expressions, to the preservation of knowledge and heritage, and to the shared care of our planet.” 

The themes discussed during the ministerial roundtables at MONDIACULT included cultural rights, heritage & culture in crises, culture & climate action, culture for peace — all bringing meaningful insights into the discussions of Cannabis policy reform (video recordings in English, French and Spanish – list of speakers). The MONDIACULT 2025 Outcome Document also resonates with Cannabis communities worldwide, as well as with the two documents submitted officially by the Cannabis Embassy and its partners to the Conference proceedings:

• The Technical Report “Cannabis: A Plant Without Borders. Cultural Diagnosis, One Hundred Years After Its Prohibition”
• The Consultation Report on an event held in Barcelona and Santiago de Chile on the role of Cannabis-related communities (hemp and marijuana) in the participatory processes of safeguarding of their cultural practices.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 by the UN General Assembly, does not include any specific target, and even less a goal, specific to culture, cultural rights, and cultural policies. The main feature of the MONDIACULT Outcome Document is its inclusion of the outline of a “Culture Goal,” a proposed framework to be included in the future global agenda to come after 2030, expected to be based on the proceedings of the Summit of the Future, that the Cannabis Embassy has been following. Published in 2020 after four years of consultations and participatory process, the Sustainable Cannabis Policy Toolkit articulates the interactions of the Cannabis plant and its policies with the 17 SDGs. Distributed to a large number of delegates, the elements outlined in the Toolkit, together with the Cannabis Embassy’s experience of the Summit of the Future negotiations, were received positively and helped articulate better the interactions of Cannabis policies with cultural policies and the right to participate in cultural life.

Fully supportive of the needs of Cannabis peoples and their cultures, the MONDIACULT Outcome Document closes with these words: “There is no future without culture.” Since legacy, Indigenous, traditional, peasant, faith-based, youth, or urban Cannabis-related practices, knowledge, and know-hows are also culture — see below — we can affirm together with UNESCO and the world’s Ministers of Culture, that there is no future without Cannabis cultures.

The report also provides guidance in navigating Cannabis re-legalisation efforts, the risks of unfair and non-inclusive legal regulations (often termed “prohibition 2.0”), as well as the efforts related to the protection of traditional knowledge and plant “genetic resources” and the fight against biopiracy (the Cannabis Embassy is engaged on this topic at the WIPO and other fora):

“Avoiding over-commercialization or decontextualization, misappropriation and misrepresentation of living heritage involves raising awareness about community stewardship and responsibilities in safeguarding it. It also requires increasing understanding and associated responsible action on cultural rights, intellectual property and ethical practices.” (p. 47)

Discussing “the diversity of contemporary cultural expressions,” which apply to the contemporary “4:20” cannabis cultures around the world —connected through modern global networks of knowledge but still deeply linked to local traditional plant varieties and/or cultural and agricultural practices—, the Report explains:

“safeguarding and promoting contemporary cultural expressions reflects the dynamic and evolving ways in which communities create, share, and participate in culture today. These expressions represent both continuity with traditional forms and innovation in cultural practice, demonstrating how cultural rights encompass both preservation and creative development. Contemporary cultural expressions often deliberately challenge or break with established traditions, rules and conventions – representing not just continuity with heritage but also intentional ruptures that expand the boundaries of cultural practice. […]

When people create cultural expressions, they contribute to cultural diversity and innovation. When they experience others’ cultural expressions as audiences, they gain exposure to different perspectives. Both modes of participation can strengthen understanding across diverse communities while respecting cultural differences, though not without productive tensions and disagreements that are themselves essential to cultural development.” (pp. 53-55)

Targeted for eradication, criminalised, and stigmatised for a century — but despite all continuing to maintain their practices and way of life — people who grow, use Cannabis, or are living with the plant as part of their social and ethnocultural background, are the stewards of cultures often at the nexus between heritage and contemporary practices, between tradition and rebellion. In some aspects, Cannabis cultures are minority cultures, from another point of view, they are extensive and cross-sectoral.

Present on all continents, the cultures of the plant are the result of centuries of cultural exchanges: Cannabis originates in Central Asia, was brought to Europe and Africa by humans and grown during millennia, adopted by all America for centuries, and, more recently in the timeline of humankind, embraced by the “Big Ocean” island nations of the Pacific region — “Cannabis is everywhere,” as Director-General Azoulay confessed to the Cannabis Embassy delegation.

But while present everywhere, the cultural practices and living traditions of 飞叶子, hulit špeka, ntsangu, quemar zacate, or pakalolo, vary widely.

In the course of the conference, the Cannabis Embassy’s four-person delegation (Farid Ghehiouèche, Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, Sébastien Béguerie, and Florent Buffière) met with numerous Ministers of Culture and their staff, UN personnel, civil servants, and had the chance to discuss with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. All expressed appreciation for the “Living Cannabis Cultures” leaflet and project, encouraging continued efforts for the participatory documentation of intangible Cannabis-related cultural heritage. Several delegates highlighted the threats to Cannabis cultures posed by the surge of novel phytocannabinoids (like delta-8-THC) or synthetic neocannabinoids, and other novel substitutes or alternates for herbal Cannabis products that are potentially more harmful (the knowledge of their pharmacology and toxicology is limited due to their recent invention) and devoid of any cultural backgrounds. As discussed in a dedicated article, and highlighted by a recent report for the European Commission, culture is also a critical vector for health promotion and harm reduction.

Such dialogues invite us to reconsider how cultural practices surrounding Cannabis inhabit the dynamic field between the traditional and the contemporary, between coded heritage and living, adaptive creativity. Faced with the question of which UNESCO cultural policy framework could most adequately encompass such plural, evolving cultural expressions, the answer seems self-evident: Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). 

But what exactly does UNESCO mean by ICH? According to the UNESCO’s info page, intangible cultural heritage is:

• Traditional, contemporary and living at the same time, including both inherited traditions and contemporary practices, rural or urban, continually adapted by diverse groups.
• Inclusive, i.e. shared across inclusive groups of humans, whether at the micro-local level or through cultural elements spanning several countries and regions; inclusivity also means transmission across generations, continuity, and social cohesion.
• Representative: Valued not for uniqueness or exclusivity but for its role within communities and its ongoing transmission of knowledge and skills.
• Community-based: Exists only when recognized by the communities who create, maintain, and transmit it; external entities cannot define it on their behalf.

“Intangible cultural heritage does not give rise to questions of whether or not certain practices are specific to a culture. It contributes to social cohesion, encouraging a sense of identity and responsibility which helps individuals to feel part of one or different communities and to feel part of society at large”

UNESCO ICH info page

So, “Cannabis” itself is not an ICH: it is a plant. “Cannabis culture” is not an ICH either, it is many. Instead, the world’s many, varied, diverse, shared, living “cannabis cultures” are more likely intangible cultural heritage — manifesting primarily through oral traditions & expressions, social practices & rituals, as well as knowledge & practices concerning nature… but also at times through performing arts, festive events, and traditional crafts.

Importantly, the existence or even recognition of ICH does not depend on its inscription in a registry: cultural practices already qualify as ICH by virtue of their living existence, intergenerational transmission, significance to communities, but also risk of disappearance. The inscription in a registry is only one tool for safeguarding, but it is not a prerequisite for something to be a cultural heritage: your Cannabis culture already is ICH!

Leaving aside philosophical considerations regarding the contradiction between a fixed registry and the intangible — a tension long noted by heritage scholars — the formal “inventorying” of ICH towards its eventual “inscription” is a long-term process that requires the involvement and active participation of the communities and groups who are custodians of the living heritage. It generally begins at the local or national level, through ICH “inventories” managed by local authorities or each country’s Ministry of Culture. This local registration process is often the most important and practically effective step (thus, probably the most useful) to protect local communities, safeguard their cultures, and conserve their ecosystems. A later step, more complex and political in nature, consists in proposing a nationally inventoried ICH element for inscription on one of the UNESCO Convention’s two lists: 

• the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, or
• the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

This project was initially launched in South America (Cannabis Embassy’s Region Mariguana, a continent called Abya Yala by some communities) thanks to the work undertaken over the previous decade by Argentina by ICH expert Lila Torre, from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, and followed-up in neighbouring Chile by Ricardo Carvajal and his cannabis arts & dispensary collective Fundación Todo Lo Que Cultivas, Eleva, who launched the first participative process to document the living Cannabis-related cultures of the South American country.

In the words of Lila Torre, during the 28 September 2025 parallel event to Mondiacult held in La Crème Gràcia:

“The first step for to take for cannabis communities is to generate their own inventories. Inventories can be visual, audio or video, can be written, oral as well (although always more difficult to safeguard), and they can take the form of community mappings or use different inventorying tools, as well as seeking supportive tools and collaboration from anthropology and other academic fields that have existing tools for cultural management and community-based management of cultural heritage.”

The 1925–2025 anniversary of the first treaty placing Cannabis under global drug control has served as a potent symbolic moment to highlight how international law, colonial and neocolonial use of drug policy, and the “war on drugs” politics, have attempted to suppress ecosystems and living cultural traditions associated with Cannabis and other plants or substances, in many parts of the world, without regard for their profound cultural significance to local communities. Our technical paper, submitted to UNESCO on the occasion of MONDIACULT 2025, argues that the Centenary of Cannabis Prohibition offers an opportunity to redress historical exclusions and affirm the rights of communities to maintain, transmit, and redevelop their cultural heritage. From now on, local Cannabis-related cultures (whichever part of the plant is used and for whatever purpose) have started the processes towards effective registration and recognition, and therefore legal protection and activation of safeguarding mechanisms.

At the MONDIACULT 2025 World Summit on Cultural Policies & Sustainable Development, the “Living Cannabis Cultures” leaflet presenting the initiatives already ongoing efforts in four regions (Chile, France, Catalonia, and South Africa) — together with the Toolkit and our Technical Paper — were received as a charting map for future endeavours. The interpellation to readers — “And what about your country?” — at the end of the leaflet resonated strongly, especially with Ministers of Culture from African countries (Cannabis Embassy’s Region Bangi), where traditional cannabis-related cultural practices are rich, but whose survival is endangered at an accelerated pace as re-legalisation efforts in Africa have been characterised by their lack of consideration of sociocultural practices, traditional healers, or the particular place of Cannabis in many ecosystems of the continent.

Hon. Abla Dzifa Gomashie, Minister of Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts for Ghana, with Cannabis Embassy team member Farid Ghehiouèche at MONDIACULT 2025

As our Technical Paper “Cannabis: A Plant Without Borders. Cultural Diagnosis, One Hundred Years After Its Prohibition” stated in its conclusion:

“Cannabis cultures are a vibrant, resilient multiplicity of local —but interconnected— living heritage. But many of these cultures continue to be confronted with substantial threats, after a century of prohibition and stigma. By addressing this crisis, and promoting policies that foster a culture for peace rather than a war on drugs, our societies can play a substantial role in a more tolerant and sustainable future.”

The MONDIACULT 2025 summit and its multiple outcomes have laid important groundwork and a clear path forwards: for local Cannabis communities custodians of ICH, but also for governments and the international community. There is no future without culture, no culture without diversity, no diversity without Cannabis.