“The Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance is very disappointed in the United Nations decision to continue restricting the global sales hemp-derived low-THC extracts,” said Ted Haney President and CEO of the Calgary based CHTA.
The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), which met last December in Vienna, Austria, did not support the following five WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) recommendations to:
1. Delete dronabinol and its stereoisomers (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) from the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances (C71), Schedule II [Medical Use by Prescription], subject to the Commission’s adoption of the recommendation to add dronabinol and its stereoisomers (delta 9- tetrahydrocannabinol) to Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (ECDD, 41st Report, Page 47);
2. Delete tetrahydrocannabinol (understood to refer to the six isomers currently listed in Schedule I [High Abuse Potential] of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances) from the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, subject to the Commission’s adoption of the recommendation to add tetrahydrocannabinol to Schedule I of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (ECDD, 41st Report, Page 49);
3. Delete “extracts and tinctures of cannabis” from Schedule I [Medical Use by Prescription] of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (C61) (ECDD, 41st Report, Page 53);
4. Add a footnote to Schedule I of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to read “Preparations containing predominantly cannabidiol and not more than 0.2 per cent of delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol are not under international control” (ECDD, 41st Report, Page 54).and to;
5. Add preparations containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (dronabinol), produced either by chemical synthesis or as a preparation of cannabis, that are compounded as pharmaceutical preparations with one or more other ingredients and in such a way that delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (dronabinol) cannot be recovered by readily available means or in a yield which would constitute a risk to public health, to Schedule III [General Use without Prescription] of the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (ECDD, 41st Report, Page 55).
“The CHTA believes that the United Nations made an error in not supporting the above C61 and C71 World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Committee recommendations that set out a THC threshold for “predominantly CBD preparations,” continued Haney. “By rejecting the changes, as recommended by the WHO’s own experts on drug dependence, the CND has shown its willingness to allow politics to intervene in what should be a science-based decision. The CND scheduling decision continues to impede the sale of safe and legal hemp-derived low-THC extracts in supermarkets, pharmacies, and health food stores; locations where Canadian consumers prefer to seek health and wellness advice and purchase natural health products. This remaining restriction makes it exceedingly difficult for the legal domestic and international hemp extract markets to develop – markets that would help Canadian and global farmers, processors, and consumers.”
