UN drugs body warns US states and Uruguay over cannabis legalisation

[n2doc]

Source: The Guardian

The United Nations has renewed its warnings to Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that their cannabis legalisation policies fail to comply with the international drug treaties.

The annual report from the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board, which is responsible for policing the drug treaties, said it would send a high-level mission to Uruguay, which became the first country to legalise the production, distribution, sale and consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes.

The UN drug experts said they would also continue their dialogue with the US government over the commercial sale and distribution of cannabis in Colorado and Washington state.

The possession and cultivation of cannabis became legal on 26 February in Washington DC. Voters in Oregon and Alaska have also approved initiatives to legalise the commercial trade in cannabis for non-medicinal purposes.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/03/un-drugs-body-warns-us-states-and-uruguay-over-cannabis-legalisation

[leveymg]

1. Hopefully, the UN Black Helicopters won't collide with the DEAs.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

34. Good one. NT

[RKP5637]

2. Then perhaps they should add alcohol to their list which is far more dangerous! n/t

[stone space]

3. Do they want us to repeal the 21st Amendment, also? (nt)

[Ed Suspicious]

4. One of the first times I recall that I want to tell the UN to go fuck itself.

[GoneFishin]

5. Tough shit.

[eShirl]

6. Time to renegotiate or repeal the outdated treaties.

[Lordquinton]

7. My thoughts as well

All research points to the UN being in the wrong here, and the war on drugs just promotes poverty.

[Comrade Grumpy]

17. The US took the lead in creating them. We need to take the lead in repealing them.

[duhneece]

32. US, the world, the UN and drug war policy

The Single Convention
"...The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research. As noted below, its major effects included updating the Paris Convention of 13 July 1931 to include the vast number of synthetic opioids invented in the intervening thirty years and a mechanism for more easily including new ones. From 1931 to 1961, most of the families of synthetic opioids had been developed, including drugs in whatever way related to methadone, pethidine, morphinans and dextromoramide and related drugs; research on fentanyls and piritramide was also nearing fruition at that point.

Earlier treaties had only controlled opium, coca, and derivatives such as morphine, heroin and cocaine. The Single Convention, adopted in 1961, consolidated those treaties and broadened their scope to include cannabis and drugs whose effects are similar to those of the drugs specified. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the World Health Organization were empowered to add, remove, and transfer drugs among the treaty's four schedules of controlled substances. The International Narcotics Control Board was put in charge of administering controls on drug production, international trade, and dispensation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was delegated the Board's day-to-day work of monitoring the situation in each country and working with national authorities to ensure compliance with the Single Convention. This treaty has since been supplemented by the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which controls LSD, MDMA, and other psychoactive pharmaceuticals, and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which strengthens provisions against money laundering and other drug-related offenses..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Convention_on_Narcotic_Drugs

and

there's more...can't find it now. Damn.

[Crowman1979]

8. Who is on this so-called UN International Narcotics Control Board?

I'm curious.

[Comrade Grumpy]

18. It's not "so-called." That's its name. And here is its membership:

http://www.incb.org/incb/en/about/membership.html\

INCB Membership
The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) consists of 13 members who are elected by the Economic and Social Council and who serve in their personal capacity, not as government representatives. Three members with medical, pharmacological or pharmaceutical experience are elected from a list of persons nominated by the World Health Organization (WHO) and 10 members are elected from a list of persons nominated by Governments.
The term of office of each member of the Board shall end on the eve of the first meeting of the Board which his successor shall be entitled to attend (Article 10 paragraph 2 of the 1961 Single Convention).
The members, with mandates expiring in the year indicated below, are:

David T. JOHNSON United States 2017

Galina Aleksandrovna KORCHAGINA Russian Federation 2015

Alejandro MOHAR BETANCOURT Mexico 2017

Marc MOINARD France 2015

Lochan NAIDOO South Africa 2015

Rajat RAY India 2015

Ahmed Kamal Eldin SAMAK Egypt 2017

Werner SIPP Germany 2017

Viroj SUMYAI Thailand 2020**

Sri SURYAWATI Indonesia 2017

Francisco E. THOUMI Colombia 2020**

Raymond YANS Belgium 2017*

Elected by ECOSOC from among nominees submitted by WHO.

* re-elected for a new five year mandate (2012-2017)
** re-elected for a new five year mandate (2015-2020)

[Crowman1979]

22. Not surprised when a board consisted of member states with the most f***ed drug laws would release..

...this statement.

[tridim]

26. In other words those dozen or so people nobody has ever heard of...

Are telling the citizens of the world that Cannabis is NOT A MEDICINE and they prefer prison terms for anyone who dares use it as such.

What right do they have to tell the world what to do? FUCK THEM. They are dinosaurs and they are dead wrong.

[Lordquinton]

9. I clicked on this because "UN drugs body"

got me really alarmed.

[KamaAina]

10. Colorado and Washington are UN member states?

Who knew?

[KamaAina]

11. Looks like the John Birchers were right after all.

The UN, in this instance at least, is in fact a useless sack of $#*!.

[blackspade]

12. Given the latest research, What is the UN's basis for continuing the Drug War charade?

Sometimes the UN is so schizophrenic....

[iandhr]

20. Every organization that contains political entities...

… is guilty of schizophrenia from time to time.

[blackspade]

33. From time to time....

Isn't that the truth.

[colorado_ufo]

14. Maybe they should just look at the current situation as a kind of "limited trial"

the results of which would give them some semblance of a scientific basis for their actions. If crime doesn't increase, accidents don't increase, social problems do not increase, the local economy is improved - maybe then they could use logic to make their decisions.

[tridim]

28. They are already ignoring the good coming out of legalization.

Why would they change now?

IMO these consensus groups will never support legalization, even after it happens. They are worthless and irrelevant.

[samsingh]

15. generally i support the un but in this case they should just f off

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. The INCB can wag its finger, but it is toothless.

[denverbill]

19. Bush 'unsigned' the Anti-ballistic missile treaty. Obama should do the same with this one.

[Sentath]

21. I have nothing useful to say

That said

Oh those poor pearls, can they even breathe while they're being clutched so hard?

[jtuck004]

23. Dinosaurs always fight extinction. Pity them, and send them on their way. n/t

[freebrew]

24. Tobacco still legal?

Fuck them.

Trees are still being cut for paper?

Fuck them.

Cotton plants destroying the land?

You got it.

[DeSwiss]

25. Hey assholes!

- Our Constitution is written on the stuff, so STFU!

[center]

[/center]

Seriously, go fuck yourselves. You're fucking worthless...........

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. Time to leave that treaty.

Surely this should get all the 'sovereignty' people riled up too, since they hate any treaty that overrides any other US specific law...

[WDIM]

29. CO and WA better watch out the UN is gonna write a letter

Telling them how angry they are with them.

Bunch of freedom haters at the UN need to leave people and their plants alone! Keep the UN out of my garden! The right to grow plants should never be infringed!

[bravenak]

30. I'm telling Republicans I know that the UN is trying to boss us around!!

They hate the UN.

[Bluenorthwest]

31. How cute the UN is, with member nations which behead gay people and such.

What are they going to do about it?