Home World UN recognizes therapeutic potential and removes cannabis from the list of most dangerous drugs

UN recognizes therapeutic potential and removes cannabis from the list of most dangerous drugs

The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs accepted on Wednesday the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation 5.1 to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from Annex IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Drugs and Narcotics. Brazil voted against.

This decision reclassifies cannabis and the resin derived from it to a level that includes substances considered less dangerous, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The vote was the first of the session and the one where the difference between votes in favor and against was smaller. The tight vote counted 27 votes in favor, one abstention and 25 votes against from all 53 participants.

The recommendation was widely awaited by the industry and is considered a victory, for recognizing the medicinal value of cannabis and cannabis resin for allowing scientific research to be carried out.

The decision removes neither the need for each country to establish control and limits on the proliferation of the drug, nor the power to change the policies adopted by each nation regarding the use of cannabis and its derivatives.

However, it is a major milestone, given that it no longer occupies a list of substances “particularly susceptible to abuse and the production of harmful effects” and “without the capacity to produce therapeutic benefits”.

Cannabis was positioned alongside substances such as heroin. Now, it is positioned next to the morphine, which the UN also recommends to control the use and abuse, but admits to have less dangerous or harmful potential.

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