By Ramone Tarnaski

The recommended changes will be discussed at a meeting in Vienna, Austria, where the UN Commission on Drugs is based, in early October 2020. No official comment has been made from America, but a Washington Post report says that is far from cheap.

The US does not agree with four of the six WHO recommendations because the changes would introduce legal ambiguities and contradictions that could undermine effective drug control and, in the worst-case scenario, lead to cannabis being grown for industrial purposes and THC derivatives in leaves separated from the cannabis plant, "said Prugh. T would undoubtedly lead to further cannabis abuse and raises a number of questions.

We know that the best policy is generally to regulate cannabis for its use, but the United Nations seems to be segmenting its treatment facilities, using cannabis as a treatment for mental health problems and not as an effective drug control tool. Moreover, there is no evidence of an association between cannabis use and mental illness in the US and substance abuse.

The UN is in the process of determining a global cannabis policy for an industry that is expected to be worth between 1.5 and 2 billion dollars per year by 2026. The current slow-moving regulators are not behaving as if the global cannabis economy, including the new government policies that go online, has not.

Finally, the USA has not agreed to exclude cannabis from the above-mentioned global drug conventions such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This is to be expected from a country that has in the past pursued an anti-drug policy, but also a long-term commitment to drug control.

Nevertheless, the hope for the global reform of the cannabis policy is not lost, and we believe that the UN has a clear perspective on the global industry. The US believes that technology has been adopted, enforced, and procured, but where the focus should be is to maintain the archaic and baseless focus on THC in marijuana. This will change when the panel in Vienna in March deals with the issue of the legalization of medical cannabis in the United States and other countries of the world.

It is extraordinary that the US has adopted, if not completely redefined, the idea of cannabis on the global stage, but has nonetheless agreed to offer differing views on its status as a controlled substance under the UN Convention. The US would support Recommendation 5.1, which would remove cannabis from the fourth stage of the 1961 Convention and move it to a much less restrictive first stage, "Prugh said. He also indicated that the US would adopt a recommendation that would have removed extracts and tinctures of marijuana and cannabis extracts, as well as cannabis concentrates and oils, from the convention.

The United Nations Commission on Drugs (CND) will of course keep cannabis on track until after the pandemic in December. The US will not remain a member of the UN Commission on Drugs and will not participate in the upcoming vote, according to the New York Times.

Somehow, the non-psychoactive regulatory chaos must end, and this sign is a decisive step forward, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group for cannabis.