Pubdate: Sun, 30 Nov 2014
Source: Tribune Review (Pittsburgh, PA)
Copyright: 2014 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://triblive.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/460

U.N. WATCH: WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING?

The United Nations' meddling in U.S. domestic affairs is an old 
story. But the latest chastisement brings into question what the 
egalitarians are smoking at their headquarters along the East River.

The head of the U.N. drug policy office is ripping the legalization 
of marijuana in some states, most recently in Oregon and Alaska, 
where voters last month approved marijuana's use.

"I don't see how the law can be compatible with existing 
conventions," says Yury Fedotov, a Russian diplomat and director of 
the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. But these U.N. "conventions," 
which date back to 1961, have no teeth, Ethan Nadelmann, executive 
director of the Drug Policy Alliance, tells Fox News.

Even a senior State Department official acknowledges that "things 
have changed."

But isn't it curious that while Mr. Fedotov admonishes commonsense 
U.S. marijuana legalization, Afghanistan's opium production 
reportedly is at record levels, with an estimated 200,000 hectares 
devoted to it, according to a U.S. report commissioned by the special 
inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

Since 2001, heroin production in Afghanistan - responsible for about 
three quarters of the world's supply - has increased 40 fold, 
according to Russia's own drug-control service.

Yet Fedotov singles out U.S. marijuana legalization? This 
finger-pointing farce reveals just how meaningless the U.N. drug 
office has become.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom