40th ECDD meeting in Geneva: pivotal moment for global Cannabis policies.

On the year of its 70th birthday, the World Health Organization (WHO) is finally taking steps to repair an injustice that it co-created: the affirmation that Cannabis had no medical value, based on biased scientific processes, as a ground for global prohibition of traditional and recreational uses of Cannabis, as well as severe restrictions to medical access and research.

This week in Geneva, for the first time ever, the WHO drugs committee has heard the voices of doctors, patients, and researchers, and has started to analyze and weigh the harms and benefits of Cannabis for health neutrally.  Their conclusions are likely to change international law and impact home policies globally.

In the 1950’s, with irrelevant, partial, and biased data, the WHO gave the green light to the inclusion of Cannabis in the strictest United Nations’ drug control Schedules[3]. These Schedules classify Cannabis and its derivatives as “particularly liable to abuse and to provide ill effects” and with “no or very few therapeutic effects.”

But a real formal scientific review of Cannabis has never been done – although the WHO, by mandate, has been responsible since the 1960’s for undertaking risk assessments of all drugs that have dependence or abuse potential[4], and furthermore mandated since the 2000’s for updating its reviews every 20 years.

These assessments are carried out utilizing a thorough review of all relevant existing data about the drug under consideration, including state of the art scientific evidence, but also field data, pre-clinical research, and even documented patients experiences. In charge of these assessments are the WHO’s independent ECDD Experts[5], who issue recommendations on whether the drug (plant or substance) under review should be placed under international control or not, and which should be the appropriate Schedule to recommend[1].

Until two years ago, the WHO has been stifling attempts of the ECDD to review Cannabis, thus maintaining the prohibitionist status-quo and the absence of recognition of the medicinal applications of Cannabis and cannabinoids internationally. Every time they were bounded to bring Cannabis on the agenda, WHO officials placed it under the “update” agenda item – the lowest possible level of debate, not leading to any assessment, and without policy implication. Worse yet, the content of these updates was subject to strong criticism from part of civil society[6].

In 2016, after considerable effort from members of the scientific community, governments, and organized civil society, the WHO finally decided to launch the process of reviewing Cannabis. In November 2017, the Committee met to discuss various issues, several harmful new psychoactive substances, but also Pre-reviewed Cannabidiol (CBD) as a first step (Pre-review[4]) in the complex issue of Cannabis and its derivatives. The Committee arrived at the preliminary conclusions that CBD is a particularly safe substance with promising therapeutic applications and that “current information does not […] justify scheduling of the substance.”

The 4 days meeting began Monday 4th June, with an afternoon of hearing testimony from MDs, patients, and researchers, and ended today. Other international institutions known for their critical views over medicinal Cannabis such as the INCB (International Narcotics Control Board) were present[9]. The outcome of their work will not be known for  several weeks, and formally presented to all the countries of the United Nations during December’s reconvened session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs[10].

To the exception of CBD, and unless a last minute dramatic switch happens (common for the WHO system), the process is expected to continue forward to a Critical review that could very well turn into a change of scheduling under the drug control Conventions, for Cannabis and (or) its derivatives[11].

FAAAT think & do tank (a non-profit NGO only funded with your finantial support) will continue following the issue and pushing the WHO towards the most robust, credible and evidence-based standards concerning Cannabis policies, starting this Saturday 10th with a discussion with officials of the WHO ECDD Secretariat, in Geneva[12]. And of course, all information will continue to be updated on www.faaat.net/cannabis

• [1] Joint Civil Society Statement: faaat.net/publications
• [2] Pictures of some stakeholders present: twitter.com/FAAATnet/status/1003704862960472064
• [3] Schedules of the drug control conventions: faaat.net/think-tank-en/crimson-paper-1
• [4] The ECDD review process explained: faaat.net/think-tank-en/crimson-paper-3
• [5] The ECDD explained: faaat.net/think-tank-en/crimson-paper-2
• [6] Michael Krawitz, International Prohibition, the Next Battleground: https://cannabisnow.com/international-prohibition-the-next-battleground/
• [7] EIHA-FAAAT Press release for the 39th ECDD: eiha.org/media/2017/12/17-12-15-EIHA-FAAAT-PRESS-COMMUNICATE-WHO-ECDD-CBD-OUTCOME.pdf
• [8] WHO website, Fortieth meeting of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence:
• who.int/medicines/access/controlled-substances/ecdd_40_meeting/en
• [9] INCB, Press communiqué: incb.org/incb/en/news/news_2018/incb-participates-in-the-40th-meeting-of-the-who-expert-committee-on-drug-dependence.html
• [10] Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Meetings of the current year:.unodc.org/unodc/en/commissions/CND/CND_Meetings-Current-Year.html
• [11] The webportal of FAAAT think & do tank: faaat.net/cannabis
• [12] Journée Société civile & politiques du cannabis: www.cannareg.ch