International Narcotics Control Board Confronting Legalization

March 2, 2020 (EIRNS)—The International Narcotics Control Board has released their annual report for 2019, and they find themselves confronting a new problem: drug legalization.  Headquartered in Vienna, the board, an “independent, quasi-judicial expert” body established to monitor the enforcement of United Nations drug policies, traces its history back to the League of Nations.

Each year, the report highlights a topic for special consideration, the 2019 topic being “Improving Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Services for Young People.” While the 146-page report covers the entirety of the illegal drug spectrum, the crisis of legalization can be seen in that, after the featured topic, “cannabis” is topic number two.

“The board notes with concern the legalization of cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes in several jurisdictions and that other jurisdictions are considering taking similar action,” the report says, reiterating that UN conventions, from 1961, 1971 and 1988, all “limit the use of all controlled substances to medical and scientific purposes.” The spreading of legalization efforts worldwide “undermin[es] the universal adherence” to the three international drug control conventions, which were again reaffirmed at the 2016 and 2019 UN General Assemblies.

Under the topic of “Recommendations,” the board “calls upon governments which have legalized the drug, all or in part, “to take steps to bring the entirety of their territories back into compliance with international conventions.”

The INCB has been battling the Dope, Inc. legalization forces since 2003, when the British Empire government of Tony Blair, in its first move toward legalization, “reclassified” cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug—still illegal, but reduced jail time—based on “science.”