UN official calls for marijuana ballot rollback
VIENNA (AP) - The head of the U.N. drug watchdog agency is urging U.S. federal officials to challenge ballot measures in Colorado and Washington that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and over.
Raymond Yans says the approvals send "a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad."
Yans heads the International Narcotics Control Board. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday he hopes Attorney General Eric Holder "will take all the necessary measures" to ensure that marijuana possession and use remains illegal throughout the U.S.
Both states are holding off on plans to regulate and tax the drug while waiting to see whether the Justice Department will assert federal authority over drug law.
The INCB has no enforcement ability.
Raymond Yans says the approvals send "a wrong message to the rest of the nation and it sends a wrong message abroad."
Yans heads the International Narcotics Control Board. He told The Associated Press on Tuesday he hopes Attorney General Eric Holder "will take all the necessary measures" to ensure that marijuana possession and use remains illegal throughout the U.S.
Both states are holding off on plans to regulate and tax the drug while waiting to see whether the Justice Department will assert federal authority over drug law.
The INCB has no enforcement ability.
Sorry, Raymond, but God made the plant, conveyed it as a "gift", and the people of the states of Colorado and Washington have decided not to reject the gift out of hand. We will fight the feds and we may very well CHANGE the feds, and then you will have 50 states and full interstate commerce in the stuff - albeit somewhat regulated.
You want to stop manufactured drugs? Fine. But a plant that has been recognized as an important medicinal herb for thousands of years should really be off the table - indeed should never have been on the table in the first place.
What is this really all about. Money, Pharma, and oh yes lets not forget CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL. I bet they know that it does not do everything that they made people think it does. They just dont want to loose all that money we use in pills.
The "rest of the nation(s" NEED this message. The REAL "wrong message" was the one sent in the 1930's!
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And the UN needs to buttoutsky!
I do not see why the UN is choosing to speak out now when two states in the USA have chosen to legalize marijuana, yet have said nothing about numerous countries that have decriminalized or legalized small amounts of marijuana for personal use. I count 21 countries that have either decriminalized, legalized or where the drug laws are not enforced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_country  Â
So why is the UN raising a fuss now??
I never understood the facination with Pot? Is it all that magical that everyone wants smoke it or sell it? I smoked it in the 70's-80's, I did not find it all that exciting to be stoned. And don't try the cancer crap as an excuse. Marinol takes care of that .
@missyk It's very relaxing. It's not meant to be exciting, it's not a hallucinogen and doesn't debilitate the user like alcohol. It's healthier than alcohol, especially when consumed orally, less damaging than pharmeceutical drugs, it's all natural, and has no side effects.Â
 @missyk Most of the fascination with cannabis comes from its illegal status. Humans tend to be curious about things they're told not to do.
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Marinol does not take care of it for the majority, as Marinol is missing numerous other compounds found in the cannabis plant which work in tandem with THC for its therapeutic properties to be effective in most people. Also, Marinol tends to make people nauseous. It is also unnecessary to synthesize THC for the obvious reason that it is easily obtained through the relatively easy growing of a cannabis plant. There are numerous medicinal uses for the plant, and one does not have to be stoned to benefit from these uses.
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For those that choose to use it for recreational purposes, it isn't about excitement. It is usually about relaxation and an overall feeling of well-being.  Most who use it in this manner remain perfectly functional both psychologically and physically. There are some, however, who abuse it and find themselves unwilling to remove themselves from a seated position.Â
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I never understood the fascination with alcohol myself. I drank it a lot in my younger years and found its effect on my life to be severely detrimental. Cannabis has had absolutely no negative effect on my life whatsoever.Â
 @Sovereign Cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years. In fact, my ancestors thought it so critical to that purpose that they brought seed stock with them when they came to these shores in 1620 - aboard the Mayflower.
Hi UN,
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GTFO out my country and state's laws. We're a sovereign nation and don't need you butting in.
Keep the UN out of the laws in the USA. In Europe there are facilities similar to coffee
bars where people openly smoke marijuana, and that is okay with the UN.
Now someone in the UN wants to dictate our laws.  NO WAY should this be allowed.
If the UN thinks they can dictate what we do in our country, then its about time they pay for the UN itself!! Oh, lets not forget the Netherlands has some liberal pot laws itself. Can we say drug cartels are trying everything they can to overturn this so they stay in the pot business??
@Devils_Advocate obviously the head of the INCB would want to keep it illegal...that's called job security!
Well then if the UN wants a say in our drug policies then we need AG Holder to ask the United Nations to help subsidize our federal and state prison systems, say to the tune of what it will cost to keep the average marijuana user incarcerated.
 @left-center There isn't enough money in the world to allow the UN to have a say in any of our policies. This is the USA...a country that was founded upon telling foreign entities to F off when it came to our affairs.
 @Sovereign No offense Sovereign, but I was being sarcastic.
 @Sovereign Thanks
 @left-center I realize that.  But my comment was intended for those who (and there are plenty of them) would take your comment literally.
So the ICNB has no enforcement authority....? Â Then WTF are they doing in the middle of this issue? Â Stay OUT ! Â
Seriously, why do the big government agencies and international orgs have it out for marijuana users? Marijuana has been proven to be less dangerous than tobacco, yet tobacco is legal and regulated.
 @KieferSkunk Money.
UN should be more concerned with global human & child trafficking instead of what people vote regarding pot use. SERIOUSLY....
@alexcrowley They go after easier targets so they can stay relevant and distract people from their failures in regards to stopping child trafficking
People - contact your elected rep and demand that they pressure the White House to stop selling our country out. First - the day after being re-elected - Obama tells the UN he will sign the gun control treaty and now this? Just who the He:: does Obama and the UN think they are! We are losing our country and need to stop it.
 I am not for the legalization of marijuana,but I am more against the U.N. telling any nation what to do .
The Netherlands is in the UN, are they being pressured on their marijuana laws by the UN as well?
What a joke... Obviously, there are some control and power issues obscuring UN priorities. Â Someone in the UN probably gets some type of "under-the-table" payoff to make it easier for Mary-J to get into the US. Â Now what happens when farmers can just grow and sell it legally; no more buttered hands!
We always ignore the UN when it suits our interests, so why would this be any different?
UN is the path where liberalism leads. Now your chickens are coming home to roost.Â
@John Gault you may need to check your history. The UN was established to promote peace and prevent wars.  Â
 @John Gault That makes absolutely no sense.  Looks to me like you are one of those guys with simple thinking that blames everything on the "other" political party. Â
@lakeview @John Gault you don't get it!Â
For all of you liberals out there who allowed the UN to get into our business, Â this has really gone to far. Â I am totally against legalizing pot but it is none of the UN's business. Â Â No foreign entity has no right to influence our government for anything. Â The UN is a terrible thing. Â . Â The UN could be the precurser to the one world government the Bible talks about.Â
 @HullenbeckCowl This has nothing to do with "liberals." At some point you need to learn how to make a point without injecting some useless, idiotic partisanship into it.Â
 @HullenbeckCowl You hit the nail right on.
 @HullenbeckCowl Ye ha, well slap me silly and call me Suzy.  I'll play the banjo to that.
The Bible says slavery is OK. Â Are you OK with that? Â Or do you just pick and choose what to believe? Â I don't know what the UN has to do with your religion, but I guess you guys will find any reason to push it on others. Â
@lakeview I want you to state the book and verse where it says slavery is ok.
 @acepaul  @KieferSkunk This is a typical over simplification... Jesus was a Jew...first and foremost...He believed in the laws and the teachings of the old testament as a whole, where he differed was in the condemnation of the fellow man and unjust punishments and hypocritical teachings of the leaders of his faith. I'm sure my own statements are also an oversimplification as well, however, Jesus was a teacher of love and acceptance he did not speak against the basis of the Law accept where it called for hatred and condemnation for he believed that the only judge was God. As far as Revelations or other prophetic writings??? Good luck getting anything of worth or current relevancy out of those books, you might as well say you have decoded Nostradamas as well.
@acepaul The Bible contains both the Old Testament and the New Testament. His reference was to the Bible, it is therefore correct.
@KieferSkunk Since most Christians believe that when Christ came he fullfilled the old law and did away with old traditions that have no place in his gospel, you will need to find a better reference than an obscure law from Exodus, preferably from the New Testament.
 @raven  @lakeview Exodus 21:1-4 "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself."
I like how the UN is so concerned about the marijuana "epidemic". I wish they had more to say when the slaughter was taking place in Rawanda. They turned their little blue bellies away and allowed the continuation of the slaughter. (The US did too, but the UN has more culpability - it's their job)
Willie Nelson should write a song about this, or maybe has.
I'm against legalizing weed, but the UN needs to mine its own business.What's next guns, air and the American way.Â
 @Tacobender50 You should read up on UN Agenda 21.  That will answer your question in as scary of a way possible.   Utopia, as the blue-hatted egg-heads see it.  Yippee.Â
@Tacobender50 Actually yes - did you not read that the day after the elections Obama was quoted as telling the UN he would sign the UN's gun control treaty?
 @Tacobender50 The U.N. is already pushing to take guns away from private owners.
Can anyone tell me what the UN has to do with the laws in our country and states?
Alcohol use to be illegal at one time too and the people who wanted it bad enough found a way to either make it or get it. Better to have it legal, taxed and treated like an agricultural product.
Can ANYONE tell me what the UN has done for the US?
They take our money, and spit in the faces of the oppressed.
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The folks that need help get spit. The rulers are all corrupt and the needy get nothing.
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The UN is a joke at best.
 @bobalouie Without American $$$ the U.N. would go bankrupt in no time flat.