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Willful Blindness: INCB can find nothing good to say on cannabis legalisation
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- Written by Tom Blickman
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n its Report for 2022, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the “independent, quasi-judicial expert body” that monitors the implementation of the UN drug control conventions, focuses on the legalisation of cannabis. Each year, in the first chapter of its annual report, the Board addresses a specific issue it deems important for drug policy discussions and the functioning of the international drug control system. This year, cannabis legalisation is the focus. The Board’s blinkered view completely ignores that in the 60 years since the adoption of the Single Convention, the global drug control regime that it so tenaciously defends has failed dismally.
The War on Drugs and the denial of indigenous rights
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- Written by Tom Blickman
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As a colonial construct, the global drug control regime has undermined the rights of indigenous peoples (including the right to self determination, and to practice and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs), obliging all states to abolish traditional uses of coca, cannabis and opium by means of crop eradication and drug law enforcement. This webinar, which took place on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples 2021, will shed light on the conflict between the drug control regime and Indigenous rights, and challenge prevailing narratives that these tensions are possible to reconcile while the UN retains the goal of a society free of drugs.
Read more: The War on Drugs and the denial of indigenous rights
Rescheduling cannabis at the UN level
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- Written by Tom Blickman
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Following its first-ever critical review of cannabis, in January 2019 the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) issued recommendations to reschedule cannabis and cannabis-related substances. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) are set to vote on these recommendations in December 2020. Eagerly awaited, the ECDD recommendations contain some positive points, such as acknowledging the medicinal usefulness of cannabis by removing it from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs and clarifying that cannabidiol (CBD) is not under international control. But the ECDD recommendations also reveal problematic underlying evaluation methods and scheduling procedures along with a very questionable rationale for keeping cannabis in Schedule I. Read more ...
Position Paper of the Fair Trade Cannabis Working Group in the Caribbean
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- Written by Tom Blickman
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The Position Paper "For inclusive business models, well designed laws and fair(er) trade options for small-scale traditional cannabis farmers” produced by The Fair(er) Trade Cannabis Working Group aims to contribute to the debate on finding sustainable and realistic solutions to the challenges posed by the developing cannabis industry, with a special focus on traditional and small scale farmers.
Read more: Position Paper of the Fair Trade Cannabis Working Group in the Caribbean
A World with Drugs: Legal Regulation through a Development Lens
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- Written by Tom Blickman
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Drugs are a development issue. Let’s stop pretending that they’re not. The so-called ‘war on drugs’ has been undermining progress towards development goals for decades. It has fuelled violence and conflict, undermined democracy, and driven poverty, inequality and poor health worldwide. The shift towards the legal regulation of drugs provides a chance to repair the harms of the past – and create a fairer, more just world for the future. Now is the time to build a new approach to drugs that prioritises, promotes and protects health and well-being, helps address poverty and inequality, and contributes to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Join us for this ground-breaking 8-part webinar series
