[Vision2020] UN: Colo., Wash. legal pot violates drug treaties

[Paul Rumelhart]

So, why is the UN telling us what laws we should strike down?  Why did we sign a treaty that limited what laws we could or could not put on the books?  Who has jurisdiction here?  Why is the Federal government thinking about suing two states? 


Paul

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2020487915_apcolegalizingmarijuanaun2ndldwritethru.html

UN: Colo., Wash. legal pot violates drug treaties 
A United Nations-based drug agency urged the 
United States government on Tuesday to challenge the legalization of 
marijuana for recreational use in Colorado and Washington, saying the 
state laws violate international drug treaties.
By P. SOLOMON BANDA
Associated Press

DENVER — 
A United Nations-based drug agency urged the United States 
government on Tuesday to challenge the legalization of marijuana for 
recreational use in Colorado and Washington, saying the state laws 
violate international drug treaties.
The International Narcotics Control Board made its appeal in an 
annual drug report. It called on Washington, D.C., to act to "ensure 
full compliance with the international drug control treaties on its 
entire territory."
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said last week that he was in the 
last stages of reviewing the Colorado and Washington state laws. Holder 
said he was examining policy options and international implications of 
the issue. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
The federal government could sue the states over legalization or 
decide not to mount a court challenge. Washington and Colorado became 
the first states to pass laws legalizing the recreational use of 
marijuana in last fall's elections.
"The entire international system is based on countries respecting the rules, and there's a broad fabric of international treaties that are 
part and parcel to that," said David Johnson, the U.S. delegate to the 
Vienna-based board.
The control board is the independent monitoring body for the 
implementation of United Nations drug control conventions. Its head, 
Raymond Yans, also called on Holder to challenge the laws soon after 
voters in both states approved them in November.
The director of the Open Society Foundations' Global Drug Policy 
Program, Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, blamed repressive drug laws for 
millions of arrests and called on the United Nations General Assembly to reconsider its approach when it holds a special session on drugs in 
2016.
The U.N. report also cited prescription drug abuse as a continuing 
problem as well as the emergence of so-called designer drugs that are 
engineered to fall out of the scope of existing drug controls.
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