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European Union officials have authorized activists to launch a signature campaign for a multinational initiative to increase access to medical cannabis and encourage research into its therapeutic potential.
The European Commission announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to partially register the initiative. This means supporters will have six months to launch a petition campaign and then collect one million signatures from at least seven member states one year from that point to force consideration of the initiative. I will do it. suggestion.
Activists supporting the measure laid out three goals they wanted the commission to pursue, but said the commission could only register two of them.
One of the approved objectives was to “facilitate access to medical cannabis and permit the transportation of cannabis and its derivatives prescribed for therapeutic purposes, in order to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to health.” I’m looking for something to do. The other calls on the EU to allocate “the necessary resources to research into cannabis for therapeutic purposes.”
However, the commission said it was not in a position to register another objective: “to convene a pan-European public assembly on cannabis policy, including sanctions and policy coherence in Member States.”
“The European Commission was forced to refuse the registration of the first objective of this initiative, as it falls outside the Commission’s competence to submit proposals for legal action on this issue,” it said.
“The committee has not analyzed the content of the proposal at this stage,” it added. “As far as the second and third objectives are concerned, the decision to register this initiative is of a legal nature and is subject to the Commission’s final legal and political conclusions regarding this initiative and the decisions it will take, if any. “It does not prejudge the actions taken,” should the initiative get the support it needs. ”
Organizers originally proposed a slightly more expanded version of the initiative last November, but after initial review and feedback from the committee, the objectives were consolidated.
If supporters collect at least 1 million signatures within the one-year deadline, the committee “must decide whether to act on the request and explain why.”
The measure, entitled the ‘European Cannabis Initiative’ (ECI), states that the EU is ‘progressively adopting a common position on an innovative approach to drug policy centered on human rights, which This is reflected in their participation in United Nations conferences.”
It also notes that member states such as Germany, Luxembourg and Malta are pursuing far-reaching reforms to legalize marijuana.
“The lack of significant progress in containing illicit drugs across Europe calls for a fundamental rethinking of the approach that has not reduced supply and demand for drugs for decades. While building up resources to reduce the associated risks and harms, there is no evidence that increased penalties have resulted in a more effective European drug control system. We’re going to address some of the reasons why.”
Meanwhile, last year, a group of United Nations (UN) experts called for an end to the global war on drugs, and a separate drug policy committee, made up of presidents and prime ministers from around the world, announced that there is now a legal and regulated approach to illegal drugs. advocated access. .
Against the backdrop of a potential EU cannabis initiative, coalition leaders in member state Germany recently reached a final agreement on a bill to legalize cannabis nationwide, ending unresolved differences that had delayed action. It was announced that the issue had been resolved and the matter was ready for a vote. It will be passed in the last week of February and will take effect in April.
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Photo by Mike Latimer.
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