BERLIN: The UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted on Wednesday to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs, which could impact the global medical marijuana industry.

The Vienna-based UN agency said in a statement that it had voted 27-25, with one abstention, to follow the World Health Organisation’s recommendation to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from Schedule IV of the 1961 Convention on Narcotic Drugs, where it was listed with heroin and several other opioids.

The schedules weigh a drug’s medical utility versus the possible harm that it might cause, and experts say that taking cannabis off the strictest schedule could lead, however, to the loosening of international controls on medical marijuana.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2020