I
The Economic and Social Council,
Noting the opinion62/ expressed by the Expert Committee of the World Health Organization on Drugs liable to produce Addiction, during its third session in 1952, that "there is no justification for the medical use of cannabis preparations" and that these preparations "are practically obsolete",
Noting that the preparations are not included in the International Pharmacopoeia and have been omitted from many of the national pharmacopoeias,
Recommends that governments of countries in which such preparations are still being used for medical purposes explore the possibility of discontinuing their use as rapidly as possible.
II
The Economic and Social Council,
Concerned by the steadily increasing illicit traffic in the parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L. containing resin, in many different regions of the world,
Noting the programme of studies undertaken by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in co-operation with the specialized agencies concerned, with a view to discovering ways by which this unsatisfactory situation may be improved,
Noting also that the plant Cannabis sativa L. is widely cultivated in many parts of the world for industrial purposes - i.e. for the production of fibre and seed,
Noting further that experiments recently carried out in the Union of South Africa and in Greece suggest that it may be possible to replace Cannabis sativa L. in the production of fibre by other botanical species not producing harmful resin,
Fearing that there is a danger of such industrial cultivation becoming a source of illicit traffic in some countries,
1. Invites the governments concerned to furnish to the Secretariat of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and to the Secretariat of the United Nations such information as may be required to carry out a study on the possibility of replacing Cannabis sativa L. by a variety of the same plant or by other plants serving similar industrial purposes but not containing harmful resin;
2. Invites the Food and Agriculture Organization, in consultation with the United Nations Secretariat, to prepare this study;
3. Invites the governments concerned to conduct experiments with a view to studying the possibility of finding a plant which does not contain harmful resin to replace Cannabis sativa L. in the production of fibre.
805th plenary meeting, 12 July 1954,
62/ See World Health Organization: Technical Report Series, No. 57, page 11.
*/ Adopted as recommended by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in a draft resolution (E/2606-E/CN.7/283, annex A, para. 5).
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