Bipartisan Bill for America to Request United Nations Remove Cannabis from Drug Schedule

A resolution has been filed by a bipartisan duo Friday asking President Biden to use his political capital to persuade the United Nations (UN) to cease the international ban on cannabis. The resolution asks that cannabis be removed entirely from the controlled substances list of a global treaty on drugs.

The measure was introduced by Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the tail end of the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). The Vienna event was the 65th session of the commission which adopted a proposal in 2020 to remove cannabis from its designation as Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention. That designation prevents member nations from legalizing cannabis without violating the treaty.

The resolution requests that the United States pressure the United Nations to “expunge and forbid penalties relating to cannabis for prior offenders, and treat cannabis as a commodity similar to other agricultural commodities.”

Rep. Mace tweeted about the resolution, saying, “We need to shift perception on the international stage; cannabis is not as dangerous as heroin, and the sooner our policies reflect this, the more lives saved.”

These events are part of a growing realization on behalf of lawmakers that cannabis prohibition is a failed policy causing more harm than it is preventing. Prison populations in the United States are disproportionately comprised of people of color at a time when the pandemic places prisoners at great risk.