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U.N. Drug Agency's Obsolete Marijuana Law
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
December 5, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
United Nation’s Vienna-based
International Narcotics Control Board showed it’s just a backward as the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency, currently classifying cannabis as a dangerous narcotic,
the same way as heroin or cocaine.
White House officials instructed the DEA to not prosecute states for violating
federal drug laws where state’s pass initiatives or legislative acts on
compassionate use laws [medical marijuana] or outright legalization. Legalization started with Colorado
and Washington State in 2014, after voters passed legalization ballot
initiatives in 2012. When Oregon
and Alaska followed suit Nov. 4 passing initiatives for recreational use, it
drew ire from the U.N.’s INCB.
Insisting “legalization for recreational use is definitely not the right way to
go,” INCP’s Secretary-General South African Dr. Lochan Naidoo condemned
recreational marijuana laws in Oregon and Alaska.
Condemning legalization as bad for public health, Naidoo offers no facts,
only specious conjecture suggesting that marijuana harms normal brain
development. “We do know about the
damage that cannabis does to the brain,” said Naiboo, knowing full-well that
marijuana consumers won’t be deterred by harsh laws. Much is known about the long-term
effects of marijuana use from California, where the state passed Prop 215 Nov.
5, 1995, the Compassionate Act..
Most Prop 215 advocates admit that the law’s liberal implementation amounted to
a de facto legalization over the last 18 years.
Qualifications under Prop 215 for prescriptions are widely available for
practically any malady, giving adults easy access to medical-grade pot at the
state’s estimated 1,000 cannabis dispensaries.
Bureaucrats like, Naidoo, thrive on keeping cannabis illegal for his own
backward and self-serving reasons.
California voters and state legislators realized nearly 19 years ago that
it’s better to control and tax the use of medical marijuana than let the illicit
drug trade proliferate in the state.
California is expected during the 2016 presidential election to pass its
own recreational use law, recognizing, if nothing else, that the 1996
well-intentioned Compassionate Use Law amounted to a kind of legalization under
medical decision-making. Over
18-years of implementation shows no increase in marijuana-related traffic
accidents or, more importantly, adverse reaction in emergency rooms. “I am not sure how well people are
going to be able to protect their children,” said Naidoo, not realizing that
with or without legalization or compassionate use laws parents can’t stop minors
from getting marijuana illegally.
Prop 215 virtually eliminated the need to buy cannabis on the streets.
Today, 23 states plus the District of Columbia have medical marijuana
laws, adding four more states with recreational laws. While there’s little difference
between medical pot dispensaries and marijuana shops in recreational use states,
the states could, at their discretion, limit the concentration of
Tetrahydrocannabinol [THC]. Today’s
medical dispensaries boast of some Indica strains at between 27%-30%, five times
the potency of street marijuana bought in the late1980s. Potency issues can cause problems
for individuals not closely monitoring marijuana intake. Because of today’s increased
potency, users ingest far less quantities of marijuana, through smoking,
inhalers, tinctures, foods and other delivery systems. Naidoo cites the obsolete 1961
U.N.’s Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, expressing outdated fears of
marijuana’s effect on young adults and developing youth.
President Barack Obama has not instructed the Justice Department to work
with the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency to reclassify
marijuana. Like the obsolete 1961
Single Convention, marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I narcotic,
in the same class and heroin, cocaine and LSD.
Naidoo insists that while the U.S. has never signed the 1961 Single
Convention, it must maintain consistency with the U.N. agency’s classification
scheme. Legalizing marijuana or
passing compassionate use laws violates Naidoo’s 1961 Single Convention, putting
individual states at odds with federal and international drug laws. Naidoo expects all U.S. states to
comply with U.N. drug enforcement standards, despite the reality of
compassionate use laws and, more recently, states passing recreational
legalization without requiring medical approval.
Before Obama leaves office, he should instruct Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to
commission his successor to work with the FDA and DEA to reclassify marijuana
under the 1970 U.S. Controlled Substance Act as a Schedule III drug. Leaving it classified as Schedule I
drug is inconsistent with 23 states and D.C. compassionate use laws and the four
states passing recreational use laws.
There’s no better way to help defeat the war on drugs than passing more
state marijuana recreational use laws.
While bureaucrats like Naidoo want U.S. states to comply with the
outdated 1961 Single Convention, it’s clear that the old marijuana
classification scheme no longer works.
“Making attempts to try and get back into compliance,” said Naidoo would
only add more costs to law enforcement and legal court costs. Reclassifying marijuana would go
along way in putting common sense back into the war on drugs..
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