World Health Organisation Recommends Reclassifying Marijuana Under
International Treaties
It had previously been the case that CBD
wasn’t scheduled under the international
conventions, but the new recommendation is
to make that even more clear.
Global health experts at the United Nations
are recommending that marijuana and its key
components be formally rescheduled under
international drug treaties.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is
calling for whole-plant marijuana, as well as
cannabis resin, to be removed from Schedule
IV—the most restrictive category of a 1961
drug convention signed by countries from
around the world.
The
body
also
wants
delta-9-
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its isomers
to be completely removed from a separate
1971 drug treaty and instead added to
Schedule I of the 1961 convention, according
to a WHO document that has not yet been
formally released but was circulated by
cannabis reform advocates.
Marijuana and cannabis resin would also
remain in Schedule I of the 1961 treaty—they
are currently dual-designated in Schedules I
and IV, with IV being reserved for those
substances that are seen as particularly
harmful with limited medical benefits. (That’s
different from the U.S. federal system, under
which Schedule I is where the supposedly
most dangerous and restricted drugs—like
marijuana, heroin and LSD—are classified.)
WHO is also moving to make clear that
cannabidiol and CBD-focused preparations
containing no more than 0.2 percent THC are
“not under international control” at all.
Cannabis extracts and tinctures would be
removed from Schedule I of the 1961 treaty
under the recommendations, and compounded
pharmaceutical preparations containing THC
would be placed in Schedule III of that
convention.
The practical effects of the changes would be
somewhat limited, in that they wouldn’t allow
countries to legalise marijuana and still be in
strict compliance with international treaties,
but their political implications are hard to
overstate.
Taken together, recommendations, if adopted,
would represent a formal recognition that the
world’s governing bodies have effectively
been wrong about marijuana’s harms and
therapeutic benefits for decades. WHO’s new
position comes at a time when a growing
number of countries are moving to reform
their cannabis policies.
As such, a shift at the UN could embolden
additional nations to scale back or repeal their
prohibition laws—even though legalisation
for non-medical or non-scientific reasons
would still technically violate the global
conventions.
“The placement of cannabis in the 1961
treaty, in the absence of scientific evidence,
was a terrible injustice,” said Michael
Krawitz, a U.S. Air Force veteran and
legalization advocate who has pushed for
international reforms. “Today the World
Health Organisation has gone a long way
towards setting the record straight.
“It is time for us all to support the World
Health Organisation’s recommendations and
ensure politics don’t trump science.”