Pubdate: Wed, 05 Mar 2014
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175
Author: Alan Travis
Page: 19

UN WARNS EASING OF DRUG LAWS IS ENDANGERING HEALTH

Fears Over Liberalisation in Uruguay and US States

Fears That Moves Would Lead to More Addiction

The UN has launched a counter-offensive against moves to liberalise
drug laws around the world, warning that cannabis legalisation poses a
grave danger to public health.

The UN body for enforcing international drug treaties, the
International Narcotics Control Board ( INCB), voiced concern over
"misguided initiatives" on cannabis legalisation in Uruguay and the US
states of Colorado and Washington that fail to comply with
international conventions.

The INCB annual report published yesterday claims that the
introduction of a widely commercialised "medical" cannabis programme
in Colorado has led to increases in car accidents involving "drug
drivers", cannabis-related treatment admissions, and positive drug
tests for cannabis.

"Drug-traffickers will choose the path of least resistance, so it is
essential that global efforts to tackle the drug problem are unified,"
said Raymond Yans, INCB president. He said the UN was concerned about
some initiatives aimed at the legalisation of the non-medical and
non-scientific use of cannabis that posed "a very grave danger to
public health and wellbeing"  the very things international drug
conventions were designed to protect.

The UN's warning follows the vote by Uruguay's parliament in December
to approve a bill to legalise and regulate the sale and production of
marijuana. The sale of cannabis by licensed suppliers to adults aged
over 21 became legal in Colorado in January, and is due to follow this
summer in Washington state. This is despite it remaining illegal under
US federal law to cultivate, sell or possess cannabis.

Uruguay's president, Jose Mujica, has said his country's initiative
was an attempt to undermine the black market, and find an alternative
to the "war on drugs", which he says has created more problems than it
solves.

But the INCB report argues against such "alternative drug regimes",
claiming legalisation would not collapse "underground markets", but
instead would lead to much greater use of such drugs and higher levels
of addiction.

Pointing to the history of alcohol and tobacco markets, the report
says that despite legalisation there is still a thriving black market
for cigarettes in many countries. It says up to 20% of Britain's
domestic cigarette market consists of smuggled cigarettes, while they
represent 33% of all domestic cigarette consumption in Canada.

Alcohol, despite being legal, is also responsible for far more arrests
than illegal drugs. In the US there were 2m alcohol-related arrests in
2012 compared with 1.6m related to illegal drugs.

"One reason for those higher alcohol-related costs is that in many
countries alcohol abuse is far more prevalent than the abuse of
substances under international control," the report says.

Drug law reform activists said the emergence of regulated marijuana
markets meant that a discussion on fundamental reform of the UN drug
control system could no longer be avoided.

Ann Fordham of the International Drug Policy Consortium said: "While
the board's interest in ensuring access to medicines for the relief of
pain and suffering is positive, it remains in denial of the urgent
calls to have a meaningful debate on the future of global drug policy.
The board is apparently oblivious to the growing number of states
questioning the status quo and exploring alternative policies."

Her criticism was supported by Dave Bewley-Taylor, of the Swansea
University based Global Drug Policy Observatory, who said: "For many
years, countries have stretched the UN drug control conventions to
their legal limits, particularly around the use of cannabis. Now that
the cracks have reached the point of treaty breach, we need a serious
discussion about how to reform international drug conventions to
better protect people's health, safety and human rights."

The UN remains most concerned about the scale of illicit opium poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan, which set records in 2013 reaching 209,000
hectares, a 36% increase compared with 154,000 hectares in 2012.
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