UN Urged to become more cannabis friendly

A big report from The Lancet hit this week, and the implications could be huge for the cannabis industry. The report urged the United Nations to rethink cannabis policy and become more cannabis friendly.

The Lancet is one of the world’s most trusted and popular scientific journals, and they take publishing studies and reports very seriously. Each submission is put through an extensive review process to assess the validity of the claims. In short, if you can’t trust a journal like The Lancet, you can’t trust much.

This could be the turning point for the marijuana industry as the report is expected to spark a global rethink of how cannabis is perceived. Most importantly, the report just might influence the United Nation’s special session that they are having on policies regarding drugs at the next General Assembly. This is set to be held between the 19th and the 21st of April this year—so soon, but far enough away that The Lancet’s report could have a real effect.

The report was co-authored by 26 researches and run by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. They stated that they believe that the weight of evidence for the health and other harms of criminal markets and other consequences of prohibition is likely to lead more countries, as well as a growing number of states in America, to gradually make moves in the direction of regulated drug markets — a direction the the authors of the study stated that they endorse.

Interestingly, in 1998, the special UN session on drug policy ended with the following slogan: “A drug-free world—we can do it!” Not only did this slogan prove impossible, but it is also a potentially harmful idea. Drugs can be used for good, and obliterating drugs totally would be harmful to a lot of people. This sort of prohibitionist talk and zero-tolerance policies are proving less and less popular as a more regulatory process shows such promising results.

Another thing that the commission identified was the federal research policies in the United States, which until recently have always sought to find drugs harmful and dangerous. At the same time, there has been a block on funding for research looking into the healing benefits of cannabis—until recently.

Scientists and medical marijuana advocates have been asking for a fairer approach to finding. Hopefully The Lancet’s most recent report will lead to a scientific world that is more cannabis friendly.
Speaking of cannabis friendly, why not take a trip to a state where weed is legal and find a marijuana rental? You can browse listings at Bud and Breakfast and discover your dream vacation.