Officials from several European countries recently met to discuss the factors involved in legalizing adult-use cannabis amid a wave of cannabis reform across the region. The historic meeting is expected to be the first of several multilateral discussions and could be expanded to include other countries. The joint meeting involved representatives from The Netherlands, Malta, Germany and Luxembourg.
Advocates have lauded the meeting, stating that it is critical to cannabis reform in Europe by allowing member states to coordinate their marijuana regulations and dealing with any pushback from the United Nations (UN). As it stands, the UN currently bans member states from legalizing recreational cannabis. A joint statement from the countries involved reveals that although the meeting did not result in any major decisions, officials from the countries are aware that the current prohibitionist stance against cannabis is not a “tenable option.”
Consequently, countries with prohibitionist policies will have to review the available data on the short- and long-term impacts of prohibition and find ways to regulate cannabis. The statement notes that such joint meetings are crucial to sharing knowledge, experiences and best practices, as well as finding appropriate solutions to the issues that could hold back cannabis reform.
More specifically, the statement says that this “first multilateral exchange” was geared toward discussions for regulating marijuana for nonscientific and nonmedical issues. The countries involved say that the discussions are needed for a variety of reasons, including addressing the public health risks exacerbated by the illicit cannabis market and providing efficient ways for law enforcement to identify different types of cannabis products.
The joint statement also emphasized the need to review existing cannabis policies, especially considering recent cannabis legislative changes in other countries. There is also an urgent need to develop and strengthen social and health programs such as treatment, harm-reduction and prevention programs.
Luxembourg Minister of Justice Sam Tanson said in a separate statement that more than 50 years after the country criminalized drug use, it still bases its drug policy on repression. He said that statistics show that this approach has not been successful, underscoring the need for a new approach to dealing with drug-related behavior based on discussions with territories that have also pursued similar repression-based approaches with little success.
According to Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Paulette Lenert, cannabis policy across the region is sorely in need of a paradigm shift that is based on prevention and the reduction of drugs harms and risks via regulation rather than prohibition.
This viewpoint that prohibition is doing more harm than good is already strong in the United States, and the marijuana industry and its actors such as Prime Harvest Inc. look forward to the time when the prohibitionist machinery will be totally dismantled at a federal level.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Prime Harvest Inc. are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/PRIME
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