Philly420: Marijuana reform is going global

Philadelphia is celebrating one year of marijuana decriminalization this week. Now, there are some significant moves being made for the issue internationally.

As we've reported here at Philly420 arrests here are down more than 70 percent with the change in law.

Delaware and Maryland have taken decriminalization statewide in the last year. Four states and Washington D.C. have fully legalized cannabis for all uses. More states will likely end prohibition by 2016.

Historically, America has pushed prohibition on the rest of the world. The world appears to be pushing back.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Airlines and a major player in drug policy reform, this week leaked a report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime that recommended decriminalizing all drug possession.

The BBC got the document first via Branson's Twitter feed. The U.N. paper said, in part, "Treating drug use for non-medical purposes and possession for personal consumption as criminal offences has contributed to public health problems and induced negative consequences for safety, security, and human rights."

But the U.N., after pressure from an unnamed member state (gee, I wonder who...), quickly withdrew the paper and denied it would adopt a new position.

Last year, the World Health Organization, an arm of the U.N., made an oblique reference to decriminalization as well. There is clearly some reluctance to undo the status quo.

Branson is part of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. I was there when the group met for the first time in the U.S. at a New York City press conference in 2011.

The former presidents of Switzerland, Colombia and Brazil are part of the group. They had a lot to say four years ago about marijuana, prior to state-level legalization in America.

"For cannabis, countries should be able to experiment with regulation," said Fernando Henrique Cardoso, the former president of Brazil.

Cesar Gaviria, the former President of Colombia, discussed treating cannabis like alcohol and tobacco.

"When it comes to someone smoking some marijuana, people should not be sent to a jail," Gaviria said.

He repeated his calls for "marijuana" legalization in Spanish for the international press gathered that day.

The U.N. Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs was amended in concert with the creation of the Controlled Substances Act in 1971; this is essentially why American-style marijuana prohibition is enforced around the globe. Re-ratified in 1988, that treaty bound every member state to adopt laws to make "the possession, purchase or cultivation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances for personal consumption" a criminal offense.

Some of these laws are taken to the extreme. In Indonesia people are executed for distributing or importing marijuana. Actor Jackie Chan's son, Jaycee, was caught with more than 100 grams of marijuana in Beijing. He could have also faced execution as the ultimate sentence if they thought he was dealing weed.

Decriminalization is still the more attractive a word and policy for top-level politicians and diplomats.

Brazil's Cardoso said in 2011, "It's not that we don't have the courage to say 'legalize,' it is just that we need the right moment."

Some countries have already bucked that trend. Spain, Jamaica and Uruguay have legalized marijuana. Chile, Australia and Croatia announced in recent weeks that they will allow medical cannabis. Citing tribal sovereignty, the Sioux Nation is even planning on opening a cannabis resort on their land this year in Flandreau, South Dakota.

The national election in Canada this week ushered what could be a real sea change for marijuana up north. Justin Trudeau was elected as prime minister. He won on a platform that prominently included ending marijuana prohibition. Trudeau promised to work on regulating cannabis "right away" after assuming office. Oh, Cannabis!

An even more immediate change could be happening south of the U.S. border this month. The Supreme Court of Mexico is set to hear arguments on Oct. 28 that the current health law prohibition of marijuana is unconstitutional. The dialogue about marijuana has shifted significantly in Mexico, where possessing less than 5 grams was decriminalized in 2009. Since U.S. states have been raking in a healthy tax profit from legal marijuana, there has been a very public discussion of taking the same approach there.

So what about us?

Back when he was a U.S. senator, Barack Obama said he agreed with decriminalizing marijuana. During his run for president in 2008, his campaign said he "always" had that position. Yet since he has been in office, almost 5 million Americans have been arrested for weed. That number is staggering. While local reforms like we have in Philly have been put in place, the overall federal policy hasn't budged an inch.

Dozens of bills have been introduced in Congress on everything from allowing marijuana business access to banking to downgrading the scheduling of cannabis in the Controlled Substances Act. But there has still been no change.

There is some light. Congressman Earl Blumenaur (D-Ore.) delivered a speech on the floor this week that clearly described the path we should follow.

"The day is fast coming when the federal policy will be to robustly research, and ultimately de-schedule – or remove – marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, no longer pretending that it is or should be a Schedule 1 controlled substance, and instead tax and regulate it at the federal level," said Blumenauer.

President Obama should not be leaving this important issue for the next president. Our federal government should not be sitting on its laurels by keeping a conflicting national policy in place as states and cities dramatically shift. Obama has all of the power to end an unjust, expensive and needless war: the one waged by law enforcement against cannabis consumers.

Chris Goldstein is associate editor of Freedom Leaf magazine and board member at PhillyNorml. Contact him at chris@freedomisgreen.com.