The Russian Parliament is working on a bill legalizing poppy cultivation
On March 14, 2019, in his address at the Ministerial Segment of the 62nd session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov raised concerns about the legalization of cannabis for recreational and medical use in a number of countries.
According to the Minister, “this road leads straight to drug hell.” He also criticized attempts to justify drug usage by using human rights arguments. And he called to follow the world’s established drug control regime formed by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 and the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988.
Bill C-45 on legalizing the recreational use of cannabis in Canada was passed by the Senate of the country on June 19, 2018. Official sales started on October 17, 2018. Canada became the second country in the world after Uruguay and the first G7 country to legalize recreational cannabis. In addition, medical cannabis is in use in 29 U.S. States, France, Germany and Italy among other G7 countries. The British government announced in June that it would move to lift its ban on cannabis-based medicines, although rejecting calls to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Meanwhile in Russia, a draft allowing cultivation by the state of drug-containing plants, i.e. poppy, passed the first reading in a lower chamber of the Russian Parliament on March 14, 2019.
