Cannabis is no longer dangerous | WHO has recommended …

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the elimination of cannabis (as well as cannabis resin) from the more restrictive list of the 1961 Convention on Drugs, according to a document published on its website. official website. As a result of a scientific evaluation that culminated in November 2018, the WHO experts recommended in their final report "to eliminate cannabis and cannabis oil from the list." IV ", the most controlled category of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs Treaty of 1961. The single list on narcotic drugs, established that year, includes narcotic drugs which are particularly dangerous to human health and which do not have application therapeutics, which contain cannabis and cannabis resin.

The Committee noted at that time that List IV was in particular composed of "harmful substances with limited medical benefits" and was of the opinion that the maintenance of cannabis at this level of control would significantly restrict access. and research on possible treatments derived from the plant ". .

The results of this report corroborate the letter sent on January 24 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, whose copy is published on the official website of the WHO. # 39; WHO.

With this letter, WHO will try to have the 53 countries that make up the Commission on Narcotic Drugs process the proposal and put it to the vote, at the 62nd session of the United Nations, which will meet in Vienna, in Austria, in March 2019.

For the first time since 1961, the status of cannabis in international law is evolving. The WHO's scientific recommendations on the therapeutic value and damage of Cannabis sativa L., which repeals its 1950 ban on cannabis for therapeutic purposes, are likely to change global policies.

The World Health Organization has proposed reprogramming cannabis under international law to take into account the growing evidence of its medical applications, reversing the position taken in the last 60 years that cannabis should not to be used in the future. legitimate medical practice.

The WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence met at the end of last year to critically review available data on cannabis and related substances and to agree on the most appropriate level of international control. The current clbadification of cannabis is as strict as that of heroin, and the committee believes that maintaining it at this level of control would significantly limit access and research on possible treatments derived from the plant. The group of experts advises on the programming of substances according to their potential for danger, dependence and misuse from a public health point of view. It also takes into account its therapeutic utility.

After sixty years of opinion that countries "should strive to abolish cannabis from any legitimate medical practice", he now felt that enough information had been collected to allow a comprehensive review of cannabis and related substances, while more and more Member States allow the use of cannabis for medical and non-medical purposes.

In its review, the committee recommended removing cannabis and its oil from List IV, the most controlled category of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961. The status of other cannabis-related products should also be reconsidered. Cannabis, he advises.