Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and Norway

Norway has taken measures in recent times to try and control the damage caused by the rapidly increasing addiction of its people to heroin and pharmaceutical drugs. Random drug testing at concert venues to test the safety of drugs, creation of safe drug consumption rooms where needle exchange programs and counseling are offered are some of the steps being taken to address these issues.

These steps may be considered essential for harm reduction yet they only look to minimize the damage rather than address the real issue at the core of the problem. The real issue is that man as an animal is used to recreational drugs as a way to experience the pleasure of life and not just its pain from as long as anyone can remember. Recreational drugs like alcohol, tobacco and cannabis have existed for thousands of years. They were not disruptive to human society and health but were seen as an essential and important part of life and health. It is only in the last century or so that we have seen the deliberate prohibition of a safe drug like cannabis and its replacement in society by much more potent, addictive and lethal drugs like heroin and other opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine, synthetic cannabinoids, novel psychotropic substances and abuse of prescription drugs. These drugs have moved in to occupy the vacuum created by the removal of cannabis from mainstream society. The result is that these very difficult to detect and very dangerous alternative drugs have made victims of persons of all ages, all nations and all economic levels.

A truly effective harm reduction mechanism will be the legalization of adult recreational use of cannabis enabling people to use the plant for medical and recreational purposes. The changes happening in North America and Europe should be considered by Norway and the country should move as soon as possible to cannabis legalization. It is not enough for legalization for medical use, which leaves the plant out of the hands of the many vulnerable sections of society especially the minorities, the indigenous people, the poorest, the most ill, the elderly, women and the vulnerable youth who now rely on the black market for access to cannabis and are at high risk of getting exposed to the lethal dangerous drug alternatives that unscrupulous elements look to sell for a higher profit. An approach involving recreational use areas and the ability for an individual to home grow or purchase cannabis from retail outlets will be much more suitable than just decriminalization of cannabis which is just not enough. Decriminalization views as equal all drugs, including the benign cannabis and the most deadly drugs, which is not correct.

On a global level, it is important for Norway to push for and support world wide cannabis legalization to enable it to access global varieties of natural cannabis through trade if local cultivation is a problem due to the lack of indigenous varieties. It is important for European countries like Norway to recognize the world wide harms that people, not just in Norway, but all over the world are being subjected to due to the absurd cannabis prohibition laws that have now existed for nearly a century to enable all the harmful industries that have benefited in the absence of cannabis. One of the commendable steps taken by Norway was to, earlier in 2020, along with Uruguay, push for the vote on cannabis legalization at the UN after the UN expert committee had released its recommendations on taking cannabis out of its most restrictive schedule 4 banned substances list. The fact that countries like the US, Japan, Germany and Russia managed to get the vote postponed showed who are likely to put hurdles in the path to global legalization and what the forces driving the opposition to cannabis are.

In December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does however still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws.

It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical, alcohol and tobacco. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html

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Friday 3 May 2019

Cannabis and Norway

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