Pubdate: Wed, 06 Jan 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Blanchfield
Page: A8

LEGALIZING POT WILL RUN AFOUL OF GLOBAL TREATIES, PM WARNED

The Liberal government will have to do substantial work on the 
international stage before it can follow through on Prime Minister 
Justin Trudeau's promise to legalize marijuana, new documents suggest.

That work will have to include figuring out how Canada would comply 
with three international treaties to which the country is a party, 
all of which criminalize the possession and production of marijuana.

Mr. Trudeau's plan to legalize, regulate and restrict access to 
marijuana is already proving a complicated and controversial 
undertaking on the domestic front, in part because it requires 
working with the provinces.

Internationally, Canada will also have to find a way to essentially 
tell the world how it plans to conform to its treaty obligations, 
says a briefing note prepared for the prime minister.

The note to Mr. Trudeau was obtained by The Canadian Press through 
the Access to Information Act.

Errol Mendes, a constitutional and international law expert at the 
University of Ottawa, says the government faces a long, hard slog in 
the global arena before it can legalize pot at home.

The Liberal policy means that Canada will have to amend its 
participation in three international conventions: the Single 
Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, as amended by the 1972 
Protocol; the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971; and the 
United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs 
and Psychotropic Substances of 1988.

"All three require the criminalization of possession and production 
of cannabis," the briefing note says. "As part of examining 
legalization of cannabis possession and production, Canada will need 
to explore how to inform the international community and will have to 
take the steps needed to adjust its obligations under these conventions."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom