UN: cannabis law modifications pose "very grave danger to public health"

A cannabis smoker in Uruguay, where cultivation, sale and consumption, inside of permitted limits, is legal. Photograph: Nicolas Celaya/Xinhua Press/Corbis

The UN has launched a counter-offensive against moves to liberalise drug laws close to the globe, warning that cannabis legalisation poses a grave danger to public health.

The UN body for enforcing international drug treaties, the Global Narcotics Control Board (INCB), voiced concern over “misguided initiatives” on cannabis legalisation in Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that fail to comply with international drug conventions.

The INCB annual report published on Tuesday claims that the introduction of a extensively commercialised “health-related” cannabis programme in Colorado has led to increases in automobile accidents involving “drug drivers”, cannabis-relevant remedy admissions, and optimistic drug exams for cannabis.

“Drug-traffickers will pick the path of least resistance, so it is crucial that worldwide efforts to tackle the drug problem are unified,” mentioned Raymond Yans, INCB president.

“When governments consider their potential policies on this, the main consideration ought to be the prolonged-phrase overall health and welfare of the population.”

He mentioned the UN was concerned about some initiatives aimed at the legalisation of the non-medical and non-scientific use of cannabis that posed “a extremely grave danger to public health and wellbeing” – the quite items international drug conventions had been developed to safeguard.

The UN’s warning follows the vote by Uruguay’s parliament in December to approve a bill to legalise and regulate the sale and manufacturing of marijuana.

The sale of cannabis by licensed suppliers to adults aged more than 21 became legal in Colorado in January, and is due to comply with this summer season in Washington state. This is in spite of it remaining illegal underneath US federal law to cultivate, sell or possess cannabis.

Uruguay’s president, José Mujica, has stated his country’s initiative was an try to undermine the black industry, and find an alternative to the “war on drugs”, which he says has created far more troubles than it solves.

But the INCB report argues against such “alternative drug regimes”, claiming legalisation would not collapse “underground markets”, but rather would lead to much better use of this kind of drugs and larger ranges of addiction.

Pointing to the history of alcohol and tobacco markets, the report says that regardless of legalisation there is still a thriving black marketplace for cigarettes in several countries. It says up to twenty% of Britain’s domestic cigarette industry consists of smuggled cigarettes, whilst they represent 33% of all domestic cigarette consumption in Canada.

Alcohol, despite getting legal, is also responsible for far a lot more arrests than unlawful drugs. In the US there had been 2m alcohol-associated arrests in 2012 in contrast with 1.6m connected to illegal medicines.

“One explanation for these higher alcohol-connected charges is that in numerous countries alcohol abuse is far more prevalent than the abuse of substances below international handle,” the report says.

The UN remains most concerned about the scale of illicit opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which set information in 2013 reaching 209,000 hectares, a 36% increase compared with 154,000 hectares in 2012.

“The nation stays the centre of the illicit manufacture of heroin and its significance as a source of cannabis resin for the planet markets is developing. The situation significantly endangers the aims of the global drug manage treaties,” the INCB report says.

It repeats its warnings on legal highs or new psychoactive substances as they are officially recognized, and says unprecedented numbers and types of these synthetic chemical substances are getting offered in the establishing globe as nicely as Europe.

The UN medication report also highlights the significance of widespread prescription drug abuse in the US and says that “takeback” days selling their secure disposal are not adequate to tackle this expanding trend.

UN: cannabis law modifications pose "very grave danger to public health"