Willful blindness: INCB can find nothing good to say on cannabis legalisation

A response to the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board
Tom Blickman, Martin Jelsma, John Walsh & Dave Bewley-Taylor
Tuesday, March 14, 2023

In its report for 2022, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), the “independent, quasi-judicial expert body” that monitors the implementation of the UN drug control conventions, focuses on the legalisation of cannabis. Each year, in the first chapter of its annual report, the Board addresses a specific issue it deems important for drug policy discussions and the functioning of the international drug control system. This year, cannabis legalisation is the focus, because as many have noticed, a decade after the first state legally regulated adult recreational cannabis “a growing number of States have adopted policies that permit the use of cannabis for non-medical and non-scientific purposes”.