Cannabis, after 60 years the WHO finally recognizes its therapeutic properties

Cannabis has therapeutic qualities and, according to the data, it must necessarily be retrained. This is what emerges from the recommendations that the World Health Organization has sent to governments to eliminate cannabis from list IV of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

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A historic turning point in the medical-scientific field, after more than half a century in which the WHO included cannabis among the drugs considered dangerous and without any therapeutic value

Thus, one of the taboos that had lasted since 1961, the year in which this type of substances were included in Table IV of the Single Convention, which includes drugs considered particularly dangerous and without any therapeutic importance, is about to break.

After a favorable opinion dating back two years ago, for the first time since 1961, in short, the status of cannabis in international law is changing. WHO scientific recommendations on the therapeutic value and harm related to Cannabis sativa L., which repeal the 1950 medical cannabis ban, could change policies globally and reforms nationwide.

In March 2016, the world-renowned group of cannabis experts convened by the Americans for Safe Access patient organization presented WHO with a document demonstrating the medical usefulness of cannabis and, in November 2016, WHO accepted. to carry out a review which then took place in several stages and led to the issue of these recommendations to the United Nations Committee on Narcotic Drugs.

Specifically, the World Health Organization is now calling for the removal of the whole marijuana plant and cannabis resin from List IV, the most restrictive category of the 1961 drug convention, and that the delta-9-tetraidrocannabinolo (THC) and its isomers are completely removed from a separate 1971 drug treaty and added to Schedule I of the 1961 convention.

WHO is also moving to clarify that cannabidiol-based and CBD-focused preparations containing no more than 0,2% THC are "not under international control", although WHO had previously pointed out that CBD should not be included in international conventions. Cannabis extracts and tinctures they should also be removed from Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Narcotic Drugs and pharmaceutical compounds containing THC should be included in Annex III of that convention.

The new WHO line will be put to the vote during the 53nd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to be held in Vienna next March. XNUMX Member States will have to confirm it, even by simple majority.