On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City on Sept. 24, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a \u201cGlobal Call to Action on the World Drug Problem,\u201d which was adopted by 130 nations.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0document<\/a>\u00a0states that signing nations \u201creaffirm our commitment\u201d to implement the relevant U.N. treaties \u2014 most prominently, the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which created a unified system for enforcement of restrictions and prohibitions on controlled substances. This of course includes cannabis, although much of the event\u2019s\u00a0media coverage emphasized the opioid crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIllicit drugs are linked to organized crime, illegal financial flows, corruption and terrorism,\u201d Trump\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0in his\u00a0remarks<\/a>\u00a0at the unveiling. \u201cIt\u2019s vital for public health and national security that we fight drug addiction and stop all forms of trafficking and smuggling that provide the financial lifeblood for vicious transnational cartels. In the United States, we\u2019re taking aggressive action \u2014 securing our borders, supporting law enforcement, devoting record funding to the opioid crisis, and promoting treatment and recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we take these steps together, we can save the lives of countless people in all corners of the world,\u201d he\u00a0added<\/a>.<\/p>\n U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres echoed Trump\u2019s call for a renewed global crackdown on trafficking. \u201cThat means denying safe haven to drug traffickers and better cross-border cooperation to pursue kingpins and dismantle networks,\u201d he\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n The document was not drafted through the U.N.\u2019s usual multilateral process, but submitted in its complete and final form by the United States, with the wording presented as non-negotiable. So there was, inevitably, dissent: 63 U.N. member nations did not sign on, including significant U.S. allies such as Germany, Norway and Spain.<\/p>\n But as\u00a0InSight Crime<\/a>\u00a0notes, most of the dissenting nations are in Latin America and the Caribbean, among the world\u2019s regions most impacted by the global drug war. Declining to sign was the South American giant Brazil, joined by Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, El Salvador, Cuba and Jamaica.<\/p>\n The key U.S. partners in the global call are tellingly ominous. Early on, the United States enlisted Russia and the Philippines as \u201cco-hosts\u201d of the initiative. Russia, and especially its southern republic of Chechnya, have\u00a0launched a harsh crackdown<\/a>\u00a0on illegal drugs \u2014 prominently including cannabis \u2014 that has been decried by international human rights organizations. In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s draconian \u201cdrug war\u201d has resulted in\u00a0more than 8,000 extrajudicial killings<\/a>\u00a0of suspects by the police and paramilitaries, according to international rights monitors. Earlier this year, opposition lawmakers in the Philippines\u00a0released figures<\/a>\u00a0indicating that the death toll may now be up to 20,000.<\/p>\n Also signing on the global call are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Singapore \u2014 four nations that were\u00a0criticized by Amnesty International<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year for carrying out executions of drug suspects. China, which annually executes more people than the rest of the world combined, has been lately\u00a0stepping up executions of drug convicts<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 including for cannabis possession.<\/p>\n Analyst Phillip Smith of the\u00a0Independent Media Institute<\/a>, writing on\u00a0AlterNet<\/a>, states that the global call displays\u00a0the kind of \u201celiminationist\u201d language on illegal drug cultivation that many countries, especially in Latin America, have been moving away from. The strategy outlined in Trump\u2019s document seeks to \u201creduce\u201d drug demand, but \u201ccut off the supply\u201d of drugs by \u201cstopping\u201d their production. This invokes the eradication campaigns that continue to\u00a0spark peasant protests<\/a>\u00a0in Colombia \u2014 and have been plagued by attendant human rights abuses. The phrase \u201chuman rights\u201d does not appear in the document.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n As Toronto\u2019s\u00a0Globe & Mail<\/a>\u00a0notes, both Canada and Mexico signed on to the statement, despite the fact that Canada is now on a two-week\u00a0countdown to cannabis legalization<\/a>\u00a0and Mexico\u2019s incoming president Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador has also\u00a0broached the idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark \u2014 who now sits on a dissident-minded\u00a0Global Commission on Drug Policy<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 said she believed that Canada and Mexico likely signed under the pressure of the current\u00a0NAFTA re-negotiation<\/a>\u00a0with the US.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s giving in to bullying and extortion and it\u2019s outrageous,\u201d she said. \u201cI suspect that many countries have come under great pressure to sign for a range of reasons \u2014 they may, for example, be involved in delicate negotiations with the U.S. at the present time.\u201d<\/p>\n A Swiss member of the Global Commission, Maria Cattaui, also noted that many of the governments that signed on are themselves considering a transition to a regulated legal market, at least for cannabis. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that a good third of the signatories have already moved along the path [to regulation] \u2014 they\u2019re being hypocritical and sucking up to Trump,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pathetic and painful.\u201d<\/p>\n Alex Lawrence, spokesman for Canada\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Globe & Mail that Canada signed the Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem because Canada \u201cremains a strong supporter of the international drug-control framework and will continue working with our international partners to advance the objectives of the U.N. drug conventions.\u201d<\/p>\n Lawrence said, \u201cThe legalization of cannabis does not change our commitment to meeting the overarching goal of these conventions \u2014 protecting the health and safety of people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2028<\/b>Where cannabis is concerned, the U.N.\u2019s own position on the plant is increasingly contradictory. As advocacy group\u00a0American for Safe Access<\/a>\u00a0noted, the U.N. World Health Organization\u2019s\u00a0Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD<\/a>) issued findings in June that cannabis is a \u201crelatively safe drug,\u201d already used by millions across the world to treat a wide spectrum of medical conditions. The ECDD conducted a survey of 953 medical marijuana patients from 31 nations before issuing the findings.<\/p>\n The report found that an estimated 183 million adults used cannabis worldwide in 2015. Cannabis is cultivated in 135 countries and is the \u201cmost widely illicitly produced drug worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n The ECDD is currently\u00a0preparing a \u201ccritical review\u201d of THC<\/a>, having already issued one in August on CBD \u2014 basically calling for its descheduling and removal from the Single Convention.<\/p>\n Secretary-General Guterres himself has been a proponent of a more tolerant approach, having served as Prime Minister of Portugal when that country\u00a0depenalized<\/a>\u00a0all drugs in 2001. In March, Guterres said in a\u00a0video statement<\/a>\u00a0that he believes the decriminalization of all drugs and emphasis of healthcare over law enforcement would be the best way to address substance abuse around the world.<\/p>\n Yet the U.N. International Narcotics Control Board (INCB<\/a>) in its\u00a02017 annual report<\/a>\u00a0accused Uruguay of acting in \u201cclear violation\u201d of global drug control accords by\u00a0legalizing cannabis<\/a>. It also took aim at Jamaica for\u00a0permitting the religious use of cannabis<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and at U.S. states that have legalized.<\/p>\n \u201cGovernments and jurisdictions in North America have continued to pursue policies with respect to the legalization of the use of cannabis for non-medical purposes, in violation of the 1961 Convention,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/b>, do you think the government should renew the War on Drugs?<\/p>\n The post Activists Bash Trump\u2019s \u2018Global Call\u2019 to Renew Drug War at U.N.<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City on Sept. 24, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a \u201cGlobal Call to Action on the World Drug Problem,\u201d which was adopted by 130 nations. The\u00a0document\u00a0states that signing nations \u201creaffirm our commitment\u201d to implement the relevant U.N.Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6015,6016,50,5561,6017,6018,6019,1145,81,129,6020,667,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29588,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29587\/revisions\/29588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Lines Drawn Between Hardline and Dissenting Nations<\/h4>\n
NAFTA Partners Sign On to Drug Crackdown<\/h4>\n
Cannabis Contradictions at the United Nations<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Activists Bash Trump\u2019s \u2018Global Call\u2019 to Renew Drug War at U.N.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"