NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there a reason the legalization of marijuana has not been approved by the U.N? Why not at least medical marijuana?


Marijuana has been proven to improve the condition of many people afflicted with health problems. It has been shown that it can reduce the pressure of the eye in glaucoma patients. Marijuana can also reduce pain in those afflicted with cancer, AIDS, and multiple sclerosis.

There has even been a study that showed that long term marijuana use has only a minimal affect on the brain.

This study can be found at http://content.health.msn.com/content/article/70/80972.htm (sorry it’s not a link)

I would write a bill thingy, but I don't have enough endorsements. Someone please take up this cause, if you wish to take up the cause, telegraph me.

On any given week there are usually between four and ten proposals to Legalize or Promote Recreational Drug Use. Here's why they don't pass. Stoners can't write All the regular UN approvers are sick of them Proponents almost never lobby for passage Proponents rarely discuss their proposals in the UN Forum An awful lot of the time the assumptions are ludicrous It's already an Issue, possibly several Issues It's also a National Issue. The UN doesn't forbid it. That's a US problem. Most of them go far beyond legalization of marijuana There are a limited times we want to hear about your right to PARRR-Tay Stoners can't writeHere's today's tally of proposals for your amusement and edification:Right to smoke

A resolution to ban, legalize, or encourage recreational drugs.

Category: Recreational Drug Use
Decision: Legalize
Proposed by: Mintrude land
Description: I, leader of mintrude land believe recreational drugs should be legalized. The effects of this resulution should be

a) people can do what they like to there own bodies, as long as they do it in private.

b)A tax will be placed on drugs

c) Open dealing will be illegalThe Drug Peace Plan

A resolution to ban, legalize, or encourage recreational drugs.

Category: Recreational Drug Use
Decision: Promote
Proposed by: Nahil
Description: We propose not only a legalization but a promotion of recreational drugs.This will improve the world in 3 main ways:
1)Workers in factories and other stressfull jobs with be able to become less stressed, therefore incresing the work they can do, incresing the national revenues that can be taxed to help education, law and order or anything your country needs.
2)It will increase employment by opening up a whole range of previously restricted jobs, thus entitling them to the benefits of earning a wage, so they can feed their families.
3)Wars will decrease as militants who gain revenue from the black market trade of restricted substances will not have the money to buy arms and equipment.
So as you can see this proposal helps the entire world not just those countries with high drug-related crime or wars. Reduce stress, smoke pot

A resolution to ban, legalize, or encourage recreational drugs.

Category: Recreational Drug Use
Decision: Promote
Proposed by: Bittburger
Description: We propose not only a legalization but a promotion of recreational drugs.This will improve the world in 3 main ways:
1)Workers in factories and other stressfull jobs with be able to become less stressed, therefore incresing the work they can do, incresing the national revenues that can be taxed to help education, law and order or anything your country needs.
2)It will increase employment by opening up a whole range of previously restricted jobs, thus entitling them to the benefits of earning a wage, so they can feed their families.
3)Wars will decrease as militants who gain revenue from the black market trade of restricted substances will not have the money to buy arms and equipment.
So as you can see this proposal helps the entire world not just those countries with high drug-related crime or wars. Freedom of Choice - Drugs

A resolution to ban, legalize, or encourage recreational drugs.

Category: Recreational Drug Use
Decision: Legalize
Proposed by: Commie-Pinko Scum
Description: To aim having all "soft" (hereby defined as any nonaddictive, nonlethal in normal doses) drugs legalised. It will be legal to posess, to trade in and to consume soft drugs.

Countries which have outlawed all soft drugs have denied their citizens their right to choose what to do with their bodies. Furthermore, many nations have not taken the potential repercussions of their acts into account, leaving many patients in need of medical Cannabis in great suffering due to the draconian measures taken against this otherwise harmless drug. Substances include, but are not limited to:

-a- Cannabis, and its derivatives.
-b- Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD).
-c- Psilocybin, and plantlife which contains it.But the main reason they don't pass: You don't have the votes.

Add one more reason. Bittburger couldn't even come up with his own proposal. He had to steal Nahil's. That's pretty weak.

2 major problems:
1) Many simply have the knee-jerk reaction "OMG Drugs=EVIL!" without considering principles.
2)There's a lack of well-written/thought-out legalisation proposals, as demonstrated above.

I think the UN's stance towards drugs is far too outdated and conservative. Certainly we can take a more educated approach to drug legislation, and at the very least acknowledge medicinal properties of certain illegal drugs. I will continually revise my proposal to change the UN stance on drugs, and hopefully with the research I provide will be able to get some attention to this issue.

The Angry Junkies

The legalisation of marijuana is a national issue, not a UN one.

-Foreign Affairs

I think the UN's stance towards drugs is far too outdated and conservative. Certainly we can take a more educated approach to drug legislation, and at the very least acknowledge medicinal properties of certain illegal drugs. I will continually revise my proposal to change the UN stance on drugs, and hopefully with the research I provide will be able to get some attention to this issue.

The point you're missing is that the United Nations doesn't have a stance on drug policy. No resolution exists saying it's good; no resolution exists saying it's bad. That's because the majority of states realize that it is well within the definition of sovereign government for a country to ban these drugs, just as it is for them to legalize or encourage use. Our emphasis on resolutions has always been that they respect certain guidelines, most importantly the written format explained in my sticky thread, and the limits expressed in Rights and Duties. I suggest you read both.

Then again, you really don't have to. The UN is expressly forbidden from passing a resolution that changes the way the game's coding functions. Since several daily issues exist to allow a nation to choose its drug policy, the passage of this resolution would mean a programmer would have to go into the game code, and add a line that said no drug issues for UN members. Hence, it becomes illegal.

Then again, you really don't have to. The UN is expressly forbidden from passing a resolution that changes the way the game's coding functions. Since several daily issues exist to allow a nation to choose its drug policy, the passage of this resolution would mean a programmer would have to go into the game code, and add a line that said no drug issues for UN members. Hence, it becomes illegal.

I don't think that's true: "legalise euthanasia" was allowed to pass despite there being a national issue on euthanasia.

The moderators have made their intentions in that department pretty clear, last I checked. I might be mis-interpreting their words or thinking of something else, but I'm relatively certain I saw that defense come up over an earlier decision. Even if it's not official moderator policy, I think it should be. Think of all the ridiculous drug legalisation and gambling proposals we could get rid of?

IC: OMG! I am so totally into the legalization! 'Cause it'll make it that much easier to get it when I go on my international tour!

OOC: While I can certainly see the points presented above, perhaps the fact that these proposals are submitted so regularly shows that it is an issue that should come up for a vote. However, while I take issue with the idea that marijuana users are unable to write coherently (several acclaimed authors have admitted to being regular smokers), I do agree that the proposals submitted thus far have generally been poorly worded and rife with misspellings and other errors. Unfortunately, this reflects on the proposals that are written well. A few bad apples truly have spoiled this topic, and have made it difficult to debate seriously in the forums.

There's a more relevant issue that comes up in these forums far more often than that of drug legalisation: national sovereignty. I know, I know, we're all tired of people swinging that word around like it's a magic broadsword to protect you from the evil UN, but it has a particular and clear place here.

The effects of marijuana legislation do not, by their nature, cross borders. A case could be made for smuggling, but none of the proposals brought up ever address that particular facet of the drug issue. More often than not, they're little more than one nation claiming that every citizen of the world has a right to get high. Many nations agree, many nations disagree, but in the end it doesn't matter. There is no convincing argument why using drugs is a fundamental human right, just as there is no competitive cost/benefit analysis to show that the legalisation of these substances would outweigh the negative impacts of their widespread availability.

Now, if the debates ever made it that far, I'd be more than welcome to reconsider the issue. Unfortunately, people seem too focused on squabbling over its affects on health or how much fun it is to be swimming in a cloud of cannibis smoke.

There is no convincing argument why using drugs is a fundamental human right, just as there is no competitive cost/benefit analysis to show that the legalisation of these substances would outweigh the negative impacts of their widespread availability.

How about that citizens should have full ownership of and thus full control over their bodies? This issue, in my opinion, is simply another facet of the extremely important basic principle of individual sovereignty.

Curiously enough, does proposing the same idea with no new concepts tackled not just waste the UN's time? One would think with there being so many of these proposals that those that propose them would get the message that it is pointless to go forward with such things.

I take the stance on this issue as it is a nations right not an issue that should even be addressed by the UN.

If one can not look through what is currently proposed and either expand on the idea making it fundamentally better then they are fighting a futile battle.

*sets back and sighs with absoult disgust and loathing...* yeah , lets all stoop to the lowest level possible..I want to live in that world...oh wait I do, with the lowest commen denominators...nevermind my bad, I forgot what low IQ utter idiot half wits they entire planet has become and I forgot that everyone seems incapable of thinking , so what can I expect from simple minded, feeble, backwords, unevoloved fools?...
I should have known better than to actually expect anything intellegent to ever be posted.

*sets back and sighs with absoult disgust and loathing...* yeah , lets all stoop to the lowest level possible..I want to live in that world...oh wait I do, with the lowest commen denominators...nevermind my bad, I forgot what low IQ utter idiot half wits they entire planet has become and I forgot that everyone seems incapable of thinking , so what can I expect from simple minded, feeble, backwords, unevoloved fools?...
I should have known better than to actually expect anything intellegent to ever be posted.Your so right ! All I can hear is " blah, blah, blah ! " there.

May-haps keeping it nice and civil will help us work out exactly what side of the debate your standing on.

Marijuana's pretty nice, but you're not really missing a lot by not using it. The smell's kind of like a mix of coffe-Oh wait... never mind.