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Austria: UN Raps EU Countries Over Cannabis Let-Up
The Age, Australia
Wednesday 27 Feb 2002 VIENNA, Austria -- Some European Union countries are "undermining international law" by relaxing rules against cannabis, the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said today. INCB officials rapped Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain for decriminalising the cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use, in the board's annual report published in Vienna today. And it slammed the Netherlands, where cannabis is on sale for recreational use in coffee-shops, as well as draft Swiss legislation, which it sees as a move towards legalising cannabis, for breaching UN conventions. The trend towards a more liberal attitude to cannabis and its legislation "undermines international law", INCB President Hamid Ghodse told a press conference. Ghodse listed the health risks cannabis causes, which include madness, cancer, and damage to a number of organs in the body. "The world community is spending a lot of money in the health service and social rehabilitation for smoking and alcohol, which are seen as legal substances. The board believes that no other substance should be added to that category," he said. Cannabis was the most widely and frequently-abused illicit drug in the world, according to the UN. "While developing countries struggle to eradicate cannabis and fight illicit trafficking of the substance, certain developed countries have chosen to tolerate the cultivation, trade and abuse of cannabis on their territory," the INCB report said. "How can we require Morocco to prevent cannabis coming to European markets if, on the other hand, demand is tolerated, decriminalised or even de facto legalised?" asked INCB Secretary Herbert Schaepe. The board rapped the countries, many of which had signed international conventions on drug prevention, for breaching the conventions themselves. "All efforts to control the world drug problem will fail unless there is universal commitment and true implementation of the provisions of the treaties," the report said. To change the convention the countries would have to offer the World Health Organisation evidence that cannabis was not harmful so that it would be removed from its list of controlled drugs, officials explained.
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