Cannabis - UN favorable

We are witnessing a historic change that has come after almost 60 years. Even the UN officially sanctioned that cannabis is a medicine , removing it from table IV, the one where highly harmful substances and without medical value were contained. 

But let's go in order! 

Already two years ago, WHO scientific recommendations on the therapeutic value and harm related to Cannabis sativa L., repealing the 1950 medical cannabis ban, were the keystone for global policy change and reform. nationwide.

In March 2016, the world-renowned group of cannabis experts convened by the Americans for Safe Access patient organization presented WHO with a document demonstrating the medical usefulness of cannabis and, in November 2016, WHO accepted. to carry out a review which then took place in several stages and led to the issue of these recommendations to the United Nations Committee on Narcotic Drugs.

Specifically, the World Health Organization calls for the removal of the whole marijuana plant and cannabis resin from List IV , the most restrictive category of the 1961 drug convention, and that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its isomers are completely removed from a separate 1971 drug treaty and added to Schedule I of the 1961 convention.  

What happened in the UN vote on cannabis in Vienna

In fact, on 2 December 2020 only one of the 6 recommendations that the WHO had made on cannabis was approved, the first, which provided that the plant and derived extracts were eliminated from table IV , that of dangerous substances with high potential toxicity and with little or no therapeutic power. It means the full recognition of the medical properties of cannabis and the fact that from now on, internationally, it will be considered as a normal narcotic drug, like opiates, without the additional restrictions deriving from the previous classification.       

The other 5 recommendations  on cannabis voted at the UN (that dronabinol (synthetic THC) be added to Table I of the 1961 Single Convention, the deletion of dronabinol from the 1971 Narcotic Convention, that THC be added to Table I of the 1961 Single Convention, the cancellation of THC from the 1971 Narcotic Convention, the cancellation of extracts and tinctures from Table I of the 1961 Single Convention and finally that preparations containing mainly CBD and no more than 0.2% THC do not were under international control ", they were not approved. Attention: they have not been ratified, but they are in any case an expression of the highest world authority in terms of health. 

Although it was quite predictable, it is surprising that the last point was not approved because it had just been reiterated by the European Court of Justice that CBD  is not a narcotic . Also because it is a cannabinoid increasingly used in medicine, in the world of wellness in general and in cosmetics, and in the dozens of clinical studies it has never revealed to have any real side effects.     

It is a result that should not be underestimated, an important first step that erases, after  60 years , the unscientific lies that had been sewn on her. Sure, if you just look at the results of medical research, cannabis should have been  free  and legal for a while, but it's an issue where economic and political interests collide, and today's 53 member states' vote proved it for the umpteenth time.

What will change with the UN's reclassification of cannabis?

In the meantime, it is a change that  will facilitate scientific  research and the continuation of studies on multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, pain, cancer, gastrointestinal and mental diseases and all the others on which scientists are focusing. Until now, medical research with cannabis was possible in a very limited way, as inclusion in Table IV acted as a brake due to the restrictions and legal uncertainty due to the different criteria applied in each country. Another thing we can say, it could also change something in the distribution, in the sense of  finding  of the raw material which today turns out to be one of the most important points for a correct functioning of the national health system 

Bongae