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A new United Nations (UN) report on worldwide drug trends acknowledges that marijuana legalization in the U.S. and Canada may have helped to shrink the size of illicit markets, while at the same time driving significant drops in the number of people arrested for cannabis offenses. It also notes the emergence of what it calls a \u201cpsychedelic renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some jurisdictions, the the size of the illegal cannabis market appears to be shrinking,\u201d say key findings of the 2024 World Drug Report, from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), \u201cand in the United States the number and rate of people arrested for cannabis-related offences [appears] to be decreasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time, sharp racial disparities in marijuana arrests have persisted even as raw arrest numbers drop, and legalization has also popularized new forms of marijuana products that raise concerns about youth use, including vapes, high-THC cannabis concentrates and infused edibles, the UN office says.<\/p>\n
As of the beginning of 2024, a number of UN member states\u2014Canada, Uruguay and 27 jurisdictions in the U.S.\u2014had \u201cenacted legal provisions allowing the production and sale of cannabis for non-medical use,\u201d the report says, while others, such as in Europe, \u201coffer varying degrees of regulated access to cannabis for non-medical use.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report \u201cis aimed not only at fostering international cooperation to counter the impact of the world drug problem on health, governance and security,\u201d a UNODC press release<\/a> says, \u201cbut also at assisting Member States in anticipating and addressing threats posed by drug markets and mitigating their consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n A map of \u201cThe World Drug Problem\u201d included in the report does not specifically call out marijuana in any global region, though it says that \u201ccannabis trafficking and use affect all regions worldwide.\u201d Primarily, however, the report looks at other drugs, such as opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine and newer synthetic substances.<\/p>\n UN Office on Drugs and Crime<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The document also highlights that \u201ca renewed interest in the therapeutic use of different psychedelic substances\u2014controlled under the international drug conventions \u2014 for the treatment of a range of mental health disorders has sparked a wave of clinical trials.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cResults from the early stages of ongoing medical research have led to policy changes that have allowed access to psychedelics for \u2018quasi-therapeutic\u2019 use in a couple of jurisdictions in the United States as well as for medical use in Australia and one jurisdiction in Canada,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n \u201cWithin the broader \u2018psychedelic renaissance\u2019, there are popular movements that are distinct from traditional use by Indigenous communities and are contributing to burgeoning commercial interest and to the creation of an enabling environment that encourages broad access to the unsupervised, \u2018quasi-therapeutic\u2019 and non-medical use of psychedelics,\u201d UNODC adds elsewhere in the report, noting that \u201cthe impulse to legalize psychedelics seems to be motivated more by the desire for unsupervised therapeutic use within the overall realm of mental health, mindfulness, spirituality and overall well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n UN Office on Drugs and Crime<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As for cannabis, which UNODC calls in the new report \u201cby far the world\u2019s most commonly used drug,\u201d an estimated 228 million people globally used the substance, representing about 4 percent of the world\u2019s population. In North America, the region where marijuana use is the most popular, nearly 1 in 5 people (19.8 percent) between 15 and 64 used the drug in 2022.<\/p>\n Regarding medical marijuana, UNODC said there\u2019s evidence \u201cof the effectiveness of cannabinoids in treating a few conditions, but for many others the evidence is limited.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMany countries have made provisions for the medical use of cannabis,\u201d it added, \u201cbut the regulatory approaches to medical cannabis differ widely among those countries.\u201d<\/p>\n The UN report also says that \u201cnew means of drug delivery are negatively impacting young people,\u201d noting that harmful marijuana use among adolescents \u201cremains a concern in many regions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile daily cannabis use among adolescents in North America remains stable, there has been an increase in the regular vaping of cannabis,\u201d the report says among its key findings. \u201cThe availability of vapes, concentrates, and edibles post-legalization may have increased the overall health harm of cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n It says hospitalizations related to marijuana have increased, \u201cparticularly for cannabis-induced psychosis and withdrawal, with young adults being disproportionately affected.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile all age groups benefit from prevention programmes,\u201d the report says of drug use generally, \u201cprioritizing children and young people is crucial. Adolescence is a peak period for initiating substance use, as it is a time when brain development is still ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking at substance trends worldwide, the UN report also notes that \u201cthe gap is widening\u201d between the number of people people who have substance use disorders and the number of people actually receiving treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cOnly about 1 in 11 people with drug use disorders received drug treatment globally in 2022,\u201d it says, \u201ca decrease from 2015.\u201d Treatment gaps were widest in Africa and Asia, and treatment coverage was also lower among women in all five global regions.<\/p>\n In most areas, people in treatment were primarily in treatment for opioids (Americas, Europe) or amphetamines (Asia, Oceania), while cannabis was the most common primary drug for people in treatment in Africa. Cannabis use is also growing the fastest in Africa compared to other regions, the report says.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the report says, marijuana \u201caccounts for a substantial share of drug-related harm globally, owing in part to its high prevalence of use.\u201d Citing 2019 data, it continues that \u201can estimated 41 per cent of drug use disorder cases globally are cannabis use disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n Globally, simple drug use and possession also \u201ccontinue to bring the most people into contact in the law,\u201d the UNODC report says. In 2022, for example, roughly 7 million people across the world were in contact with police over drug offenses, \u201cwith about two thirds of this total due to drug use or possession for use.\u201d<\/p>\n In most global regions, the likelihood of prosecution and conviction were lower for possession and use compared to trafficking offenses, but the opposite was true in Africa and Asia, where \u201cpeople arrested for drug use or possession are more likely to be prosecuted and convicted than those arrested for drug trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n UN Office on Drugs and Crime<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhile the rate of persons arrested for drug use or possession offenses in the Americas is one of the highest\u201d\u2014second only to Europe\u2014\u201dthe region has the lowest rate of conviction for such offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n Globally, nearly 9 in 10 people arrested on drug offenses in 2022 were men. \u201cWomen account for some 9 per cent of those arrested for drug trafficking,\u201d the report says, \u201cand for 12 per cent of those arrested for drug use or possession.\u201d<\/p>\n The UNODC report<\/a> was published Wednesday, just days after a separate, human rights-focused UN document urged member states to abandon the war on drugs<\/a>. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the UN\u2019s special rapporteur on the right to health, urged member nations in the new report to end the war on drugs and instead enact harm-reduction policies such as decriminalization, supervised consumption sites, drug checking and widespread availability of overdose reversal drugs like naloxone\u2014while also moving toward \u201calternative regulatory approaches\u201d for currently controlled substances.<\/p>\n Among that report\u2019s recommendations is that countries \u201cdecriminalize the use, possession, purchase and cultivation of drugs for personal use and move toward alternative regulatory approaches that put the protection of people\u2019s health and other human rights front and centre.\u201d<\/p>\n Mofokeng, who is also a medical doctor and professor at Georgetown University\u2019s Law School, urged that leaders \u201cmove from a reliance on criminal law and instead take a human rights-based, evidence-based and compassionate approach to harm reduction in relation to drug use and drug use disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n The nonprofit human rights group Amnesty International also recently put out a report calling for the legalization of all drugs, part of a health- and harm reduction-focused approach to regulation.<\/p>\n Late last year, meanwhile, 19 Latin American and Caribbean nations issued a joint statement acknowledging the need to rethink the global war on drugs<\/a>\u00a0and instead focus on \u201clife, peace and development\u201d within the region.<\/p>\n A report last year from an international coalition of advocacy groups, meanwhile, also found that\u00a0global drug prohibition has fueled environmental destruction in some of the world\u2019s most critical ecosystems<\/a>, undermining efforts to address the climate crisis.<\/p>\n And a year ago, UN special rapporteurs in a separate report said that \u201cthe \u2018war on drugs\u2019\u00a0may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIts impact has been greatest on those who live in poverty,\u201d they said, \u201cand it frequently overlaps with discrimination directed at marginalised groups, minorities and Indigenous Peoples.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2019, the UN Chief Executives Board (CEB), which represents 31 UN agencies including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), adopted a position stipulating that member states should\u00a0pursue science-based, health-oriented drug policies\u2014namely decriminalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n GOP Congressional Panel Moves To Block Marijuana Rescheduling While Amending Medical Cannabis Rider With Penalties For Sales Near Schools<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post UN Annual Drug Report Says Marijuana Legalization May Shrink Illicit Market And Notes Emergence Of \u2018Psychedelic Renaissance\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new United Nations (UN) report on worldwide drug trends acknowledges that marijuana legalization in the U.S. and Canada may have helped to shrink the size of illicit markets, while at the same time driving significant drops in the number of people arrested for cannabis offenses. It also notes theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":76573,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76572"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76574,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76572\/revisions\/76574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Screenshot-2024-06-24-at-18.17.36-1024x732-1.png\")
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\nRead More: UN Annual Drug Report Says Marijuana Legalization May Shrink Illicit Market And Notes Emergence Of \u2018Psychedelic Renaissance\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"