Cannabis in the international treaty system: procedural, methodological and terminological bias
Authors:
Michael Krawitz, Kenzi Riboulet-Zemouli, Boris Bañas, Bernhard Beitzke, David Borden, José Carlos Bouso, Farid Ghehiouèche, Amy L. King, Alejandra Outomuro, Òscar Parés-Franquero, and Jean-Jacques ‘Sonny’ Perseil.
Journal:
ECDD40
Year:
2018
About the study
This document about cannabis in the international treaty system was submitted as an official contribution to the work of the 40th Meeting of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) of the World Health Organization (WHO). Since this meeting, the documentation has been available on an earlier basis according to established rules of proceedings.
On the moment of printing, this contribution was endorsed by 68 civil society organisations from 29 countries in all continents. As of June 3rd, the number of signatories had reached 106.
This contribution examined, in detail, the bias and oversights that were likely to undermine the work done by the Committee — after presenting a brief historical overview of the previous WHO Expert Committee’s influence on the placement of cannabis in the international treaty system.
Excerpt: cannabis in the international treaty system
“In light of the bias and errors pointed out in this contribution, three possible pathways forward appear:
– end the review process,
– continue the process despite ethical concerns, bias and over strong objection,
– slow down to ensure deliberative process, comprehensiveness and thoroughness.
The last option is our preference. Our perspective is that the Expert Committee, whose role is to systematically recommend appropriate international scheduling (which apparents to the discipline of systematics) would benefit from first updating the description, identification and nomenclature of all the cannabis-related products and substances so that they match observed realities and the lege artis scientific research. In other words, as logic suggests, the Committee should start reviewing the taxonomy of cannabis-related products and substances before addressing systematics.”
Photo by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash.
Categories:
Studies & papers
, Drug policies
Tags:
CBD
, control
, cannabis policy
, regulation
, World Health Organization
, cannabis
, scientific research
, study
, drug policy