International Treaties: What Would Need to Change in Order to Legalize Cannabis Across the World

There is a significant amount of evidence that points to a change in the cycle and towards a more tolerant position regarding the growth, sale and consumption of cannabis. The last was the signing of a document at the United Nations that will allow States to develop their own drug policy.

In order to reach a dream that seems increasingly close, they still need to overcome some obstacles regarding the legal development of the industry. Among them, there are several international treaties that are currently in force: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 United Nations Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The three treaties are signed by the United States, Canada, Mexico and the majority of European countries and they oblige the signatories to establish legal measures and to criminalise the production, growth, possession and consumption of cannabis.

Following the recent United Nations General Assembly about drugs and the signing of this document that allows for a change in the policies adopted, it is expected that there will be an advance towards legislation. Faced with more conservative countries, whose discourse about the harmful effects of drugs remains unchanged, the most open ones, which advocate for more permissive policies, are opening up a path and beginning to really make themselves heard on an international level. The criminalisation of cannabis has not provided results; therefore it is necessary to propose new solutions and methods in order to regulate its consumption.

More submissive policies will not only benefit users, but they will also offer benefits to the States that adopt them. On one hand, costs would be reduced, given that they would not need to invest more funds into the fight against illegal trafficking. On the other hand, they would obtain benefits as the result of taxes that would undoubtedly provide relief to State coffers. In addition to these two benefits there would be jobs that would emerge linked to the cannabis industry. All of these arguments have been used by Governments and researchers in order to advance legalisation.

In 2016 the ban was lifted on getting rid of these treaties, and as such a reform of the legislative landscape that concerns the production, sale and consumption of cannabis is beginning. States seem to understand that legalisation and regulated business provide greater benefits than criminalisation. A significant number of countries have already outlined their intentions; it remains to be seen who will be the next to step forward.