Tom Blickman

Coca review denouement: The UN drug scheduling system in dispute. Despite finding no evidence of meaningful public health harms, the WHO has decided to uphold the UN ban on coca leaf. www.tni.org/en/article/c...

CND 69: Key issues and opportunities The webinar will discuss the key issues that are likely to structure the debates, including in relation to tabled resolutions, and present how IDPC member organisations have used this forum for their advocacy.

#CND69 starts next Monday.

The era of quiet consensus in Vienna is far gone, with geopolitics bleeding into drug policy debates.

The outcome of those five days in Vienna will shape funding, laws and policies.

Our webinar unpacks it for civil society:

These alternative legal pathways could include reservations, inter se agreements among like-minded States, or reliance on human rights obligations to justify departures from outdated treaty provisions. 7/7

Addressing that tension is essential for the credibility and future relevance of the international drug control regime. Meanwhile, progressive Member States may need to explore alternative legal pathways for reform. 6/7

The coca leaf review reveals a structural tension between outdated treaty provisions and contemporary standards, and underscores the limits of systemic evolution through existing treaty mechanisms. 5/7

The decision affects the credibility of the WHO as an independent body capable of guiding the UN drug control system toward evidence-based and human rights–compliant reform. 4/7

The conclusion the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) reached — retaining Schedule I status on convertibility grounds — offered procedural closure without confronting systemic inconsistencies. 3/7

A recommendation to delete coca leaf from the schedules would have generated political controversy that many Member States and the UN drug control bureaucracy preferred to avoid. 2/7

Coca review denouement: The UN drug scheduling system in dispute

TNI Statement to the #CND69 about the WHO coca review, that recommended that the coca leaf remains in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. 1/7
www.tni.org/en/article/c...

‘Narcoterrorism’ is back in official discourse across the Americas – with deadly consequences. 🎯

Watch our event for #HumanRightsDay (EN/ES/PT) with UN & civil society experts on how to defend human rights amid this new ‘war on drugs’ 
https://f.mtr.cool/cwblwjuhbe

New EU Drug Strategy risks undermining health, harm reduction and human rights - Joint letter by 84 civil society organisations We join 83 organisations urging EU Member States to revise the proposed Drug Strategy and reject a trafficking-only Action Plan, to ensure harm reduction, health and human rights remain central to EU drug policy.

The EU must do better: the proposed policing-first approach of the draft Strategy presented by the Commission sidelines harm reduction and omits key human rights guidance.

With 80+ orgs, we call for a balanced, health-centred and rights-based approach!

WHO rejects request from Bolivia and Colombia to remove the coca leaf from list of most-persecuted substances Schedule I of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs limits the possibility of scientific research and the exploration of alternative uses

Coca leaves remain on the list of highly dangerous substances. The window of opportunity for their removal has been shut: the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended keeping them on Schedule I — the most restrictive — of the 1961 Single Convention.
english.elpais.com/internationa...

“Moral Bankruptcy” as WHO Opts to Maintain Global Coca Prohibition - Filter The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a strict global ban on the coca leaf—a prohibition, campaigners ...

"The World Health Organization had a historic opportunity to ease a global ban on the coca leaf," reports @matthabusby.bsky.social. "But the agency has chosen not to do so."

The December 2 decision goes against the findings of the WHO's own expert review, which detailed harms of prohibition:

WHO upholds coca leaf ban, defying evidence and ignoring Indigenous rights Despite clear evidence and contravening Indigenous rights, WHO recommends the harshest scheduling for the coca leaf, upholding racist and colonial underpinnings of its ban.

The WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) recommends to keep the #coca leaf in Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs ...
Defying evidence and ignoring Indigenous rights ...
Yet another tragic historical mistake ...
idpc.net/press/2025/1...

WHO upholds coca leaf ban, defying evidence and ignoring Indigenous rights Despite clear evidence and contravening Indigenous rights, WHO recommends the harshest scheduling for the coca leaf, upholding racist and colonial underpinnings of its ban.

IDPC is deeply dismayed at this outcome, stands in solidarity with affected communities, and calls for mobilisation to denounce this injustice.

📄Read & share our full statement: https://f.mtr.cool/cdnxsqxtsw

(3/3)

Many farmers are lured by the higher rewards of the black market, despite its risks. To close the gap, legalisation advocates say growing for recreational use should also be allowed. 4/4

While cooperatives take months to pay farmers about 50 dirhams per kilogram for the raw plant, on the illicit market, processed cannabis resin can fetch up to 2,500 dirhams per kilogram. (Depending on the quality of the resin, 8 to 10 kilograms of raw plant are needed for 1 kilogram of resin). 3/4

There are 5,800 hectares of legally planted land, according to regulatory agency ANRAC, but that pales in comparison to the illegal cultivation over more than 27,100 hectares, Interior Ministry data shows. 2/4

The legal #cannabis sector in Morocco (for industrial and medicinal cannabis) is inhibited by bureaucracy, the ban on recreational cannabis and the appeal of the illegal market. 1/4
www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...

Cannabis-Legalisierung: Fast 300 Cannabis-Klubs sind in Deutschland bereits genehmigt Seit einem Jahr dürfen Cannabis-Klubs Marihuana anbauen und an ihre Mitglieder weitergeben. In NRW und Niedersachsen gibt es besonders viele solcher Vereine.

Cultivation associations in Germany have been authorised to grow #cannabis and distribute it to their members for a year now. The authorities have authorised 293 such associations. There are a particularly large number of such associations in NRW and Lower Saxony.
www.zeit.de/politik/deut...

Cannabis-Gesetz auf der Kippe? „Ich schließe nichts aus“ – erster CDU-Plan sickert durch Das Cannabis-Gesetz soll „evaluiert“ werden. Geht es nach dem Drogenbeauftragten, könnte es sich ändern. Dazu passt ein aktueller Gesetzesentwurf.

The German #cannabis law is to be ‘evaluated’ in the autumn. If drug commissioner Hendrik Streeck has his way, it could be amended. An end to the cannabis law is conceivable. ‘I'm not ruling anything out,’ says Streeck.
www.fr.de/panorama/ers...

Punitive drug policies haven’t worked. Around the world, alternatives are being trialled with success. Important conversation from the UN in Geneva.

🔴 WATCH THE RECORDING: https://idpc.net/events/2025/06/support-don-t-punish-advancing-towards-a-health-and-human-rights-based-approach-to-drug-policy

The Jewish state is building a ghetto | Opinion ***

If 21 months of seeing the death of babies, women, children, journalists, doctors and other innocents was not enough, the ghetto plan should be turning on all the warning lights. Israel is behaving as if it is planning genocide and expulsion.
www.haaretz.com/opinion/2025...

'Changing the current drug policy regime has become a life cause for me' – An interview with Colombia’s ambassador-at-large for drug policy, Laura Gil Colombia’s Ambassador Laura Gil reflects on challenging the global drug regime, breaking taboos, and building hope for a post-Prohibition future — one coalition at a time.

At the last CND in March 2025, Colombia led a resolution that creates an independent expert panel that will conduct a long-overdue review of the UN drug control ‘machinery’. Colombian ambassador Laura Gil explains the background.
idpc.net/news/2025/07...

'Changing the current drug policy regime has become a life cause for me' – An interview with Colombia’s ambassador-at-large for drug policy, Laura Gil Colombia’s Ambassador Laura Gil reflects on challenging the global drug regime, breaking taboos, and building hope for a post-Prohibition future — one coalition at a time.

'Nothing ever happens in Vienna,' they said — but Amb. Laura Gil proved otherwise.

She broke taboos, built coalitions & leaned on #CivilSociety to shift the dial on #DrugPolicyReform.

📺 Must-watch via @drugreporter.bsky.social & @idpc.net:

Veel inside info op Meet & Greet middag van coffeeshopbond PCN Warm en wetenswaardig: zo zou je de PCN Meet & Greet middag van 25 juni samen kunnen vatten. Het kwik liep bij Bosvreugd op tot boven de dertig...

Legal #cannabis farmers in Morocco are unable to dispose of their crops because their products do not meet strict Western requirements for medicinal cannabis. The situation is dire; many farmers are considering going back into illegality, says TNI's Pien Metaal.
platformcannabis.nl/redactionele...

Thailand’s cannabis ‘clinic’ transformation explained Only 2,000 of the estimated 18,000 cannabis shops in Thailand will be left once authorities complete their plan to convert dispensaries to clinics with resident doctors, a Ministry of Public Health of...

Only 2,000 of the estimated 18,000 cannabis shops in Thailand will be left once authorities complete their plan to convert dispensaries to clinics with resident doctors.
2/2
www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/gen...

Medical clinics to replace cannabis dispensaries Cannabis dispensaries must transition into medical clinics if they are to continue to run legally, says the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine.

In Thailand #cannabis dispensaries must transition into medical clinics if they are to continue to run legally, says the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine that is working on a draft of the new ministerial initiative to regulate the plant. 1/2
www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/gen...

À Lausanne, policiers et experts s’allient autour du cannabis légalisé Le cannabis pourrait bientôt être légalisé en Suisse. Un essai pilote à Lausanne sert de modèle pour répondre à la violence croissante liée à la drogue.

In Switzerland #cannabis could soon be legalised.
The Cann-L pilot trial in Lausanne is serving as a model. One million Swiss francs is now escaping from the local black market. Consumers prefer products with a lower THC content for their health.
www.tdg.ch/legalisation...