Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in US states

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CloudMaster
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Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in US states

Post by CloudMaster »

"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuter ... tates.html

By REUTERS - PUBLISHED: 19:54, 4 December 2014 | UPDATED: 19:54, 4 December 2014 - By Fredrik Dahl

Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in some US states

VIENNA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The head of a body monitoring compliance with international drug control conventions expressed concern on Thursday about the health and other implications of moves by several U.S. states to legalise marijuana.

Residents of Oregon and Alaska voted last month to allow the recreational use of marijuana, in a sign of its growing social acceptance in the United States. Washington state and Colorado legalised the drug in 2012.

Marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under U.S. federal law but President Barack Obama's administration has given individual states leeway to frame their own rules.

Lochan Naidoo, president of the Vienna-based International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said "legalisation for recreational use is definitely not the right way to go".

"We do know about the damage that cannabis does to the brain," Naidoo, a South African doctor, told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I'm not sure how well people are going to be able to protect their children."

Naidoo said many countries looked to the United States for leadership on such issues, especially developing states with fewer prevention and treatment resources.

Legalising recreational use of marijuana, which Naidoo said would increase its availability and consumption, is also not in line with the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, he added.

The INCB is an independent, quasi-judicial body charged with promoting and monitoring the convention.
While individual U.S. states never signed the convention, the federal government needs to be able to comply with its provisions, which include ensuring implementation "in all its territories", Naidoo said.

Asked whether the United States was violating the convention, he said it was not fully compliant but that he believed it was "making attempts to try and get back into compliance", adding that most countries already were.

There are conflicting views around the world on how best to tackle the drugs issue. Critics question the efficacy of "wars" on drugs and urge some legalisation to try to undermine criminal gangs in Latin America and elsewhere that thrive on trafficking.

In a move closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalisation, Uruguay's parliament last year approved a bill to legalise and regulate the production and sale of marijuana - the first country to do so.

Some other countries have decriminalised possession and the Netherlands tolerates the sale of marijuana in "coffee shops". (Editing by Gareth Jones)"


Mack 10
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Re: Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in US st

Post by Mack 10 »

These people need to get there head out the sand.
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Lemon Haze
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Re: Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in US st

Post by Lemon Haze »

CloudMaster wrote: Naidoo said many countries looked to the United States for leadership on such issues...
Well, maybe they should follow the US leadership then. Seems simple to me.
"Drugs induce paranoia and psychosis in people who have never taken any." Terence McKenna
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treetop
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Re: Drug control body concerned by pot legalisation in US st

Post by treetop »

It is their job to say that. They exist because of the failed 'war on drugs' which was just a jingoistic rallying cry for the tyrants of that time anyway.
Out dated institutions trying to justify their existence by attention seeking. Such a shame to see such a colossal waste of human resources. :cry:
How much did you produce?
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