100 Organisations Demand the United Nations to Legalise Cannabis

The United Nations is preparing (for the first time in two decades) to examine the international drug law, recently at a standstill, with defenders of cannabis worldwide joining forces to try to convince the institution to reform its prohibitive policies. 

They total over 100 organisations, from Human Rights Watch to Students for Sensible Drug Policy, DCNORML and the Drug Policy Alliance, which have just presented a statement, published in "Stop the Drug War", in which they demand that leaders worldwide allow their governments to make changes in drug laws to prevent the persecution of cannabis consumers. 

They are asking the UN to permit those governments to have the flexibility to reform their laws, in such a way that do not commit violations of the institution's conventions. "The criminalisation of personal drug consumption and possession for personal use violates the right to privacy and the basic principles of autonomy," says the official statement. 

The communiqué comes as the UN meets to debate "the world-wide drug problem," to serve as a preliminary analysis before the special session of the UN's General Assembly on Drugs, slated for 2016. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of Drug Policy, explained that the world is prepared for "a new global paradigm of drug control based on science, health and human rights." 

In addition, some members of the Drug Policy Alliance have called for some countries to cease their drug crime-related executions. As examples they have pointed to the recent "despicable" executions in Indonesia for this reason.