A leading sovereign scientific committee on drug has conducted a reexamination of all the existing research regarding thehealth effects of marijuana , which it hopes the World Health Organization ( WHO ) will use as a footing to reassess the science behind the global ban on the drug .
An international treaty known as the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs led tocannabisbeing classify as aSchedule 1substance back in 1961 . This means that it is believe to be highly habit-forming and have no curative value . However , in the more than five decades since this arrangement was put in place , our intellect of marijuana ’s effects has change dramatically , which is why experts are now call for a reappraisal of this scheduling .
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is supposed to base all of its decisions on scientific grounds provide by the WHO ’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence ( ECDD ) . However , the ECDD has never conducted a review into the effects of cannabis , intend that the last body to do so was the Health Committee of the League of Nations in 1935 .
With the ECDD set to meet in November , a committee calledDrugScience – which is made up of some of the world ’s leading experts on drugs – has roll up a full review of all the evidence for and against cannabis ’s comprehension in Schedule 1 .
" DrugScience provides a unique opportunity … to initiate a critical review process of cannabis and cannabis resin for their scheduling under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs , " explain the author .
medication containing cannabis are now licence in 28 dissimilar countries . Africa Studio / Shutterstock
Among the takings raised by the written report is that , according to the ECDD ’s prescribed criteria , Schedule 1 is reserved fordrugsthat are at least as addictive as codeine . However , codeine is anopioid , meaning it bind to the opiate sensory receptor in the central queasy system , while marijuana contains compound that bind to cannabinoid sense organ , so it is not possible to straight off equate the two .
By analyze all the existing research on cannabis , the source found that there is grounds that the drug leads to dependance by falsify the way that a cannabinoid receptor called CB1R works , although evidence suggests that this returns to normal presently after use of the drug is stopped .
The report also reveals that there is a potential connection between cannabis use andpsychosis , and that the drug also appears to have therapeutic time value – particularly for the treatment of multiple sclerosis , inveterate pain and chemotherapy - related nausea – which explains why medicines containing cannabis are currently licensed in 28 countries .
Though the review does not fall out an overall judgment on how cannabis should be scheduled , the writer insist that much of the grounds they give suggests that the scientific justification for the current restrictions on the drug demand urgent reconsideration .
