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PAN AMERICAN SCHOOL 10TH ANNUAL MODEL UNITED NATIONS February 23 rd, 24 th, and 25 th Natalia Tellez Secretary General Jose Luis Herrera Director General Miranda Silva Crisis Director Valeria Villafranca Subsecretary of Commitees Rafael Paredes Chief of Crisis Paola Froto Subsecretary of Affairs Dear Delegates, Welcome to PASMUN 2017! We are honored to have you participate at our 10th Annual Model United Nations. Our secretariat, chairs and staff have been working to give you one of the best simulations you will ever experience. During these three days you will have the opportunity to deal with international issues which will improve your skills, flourish your leadership, will promote teamwork and will make you have a different way of viewing the world we live in. You will also get to know new people, since this is an event created by students for students. We encourage you to challenge your abilities in all the possible ways before, during and after the event. We hope you give your best in this simulation and take the most advantage of it. This year, since we still have faith in humanity, we are trying to inspire you in order for you to inspire others to be the change! We are beyond excited to have you in our event! Sincerely, Pablo Navarro Subsecretary of Technology 1 Natalia Tellez Secretary General
Committee: UNODC Director: Jose Araiza Moderator: María Fernanda Arredondo Topic A: The Legalization of Marijuana as a Prescription Drug across All Member Nations I. Committee Background: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a global leader that helps to prevent drugs, it was established in 1997 through a merger between the United Nations Drug Control Programme and the Centre of International Crime Prevention, UNODC takes place in almost every region of the world through extensive networks in field offices. UNODC is helping to assist Member Stated that are having struggle against illicit drugs, terrorism, and crime. UNODC works in helping people throughout the world with drug abuse and to strengthen international action against illicit drug production and trafficking. UNODC has 20 offices over 150 countries; they work directly with governments and nongovernmental organizations, all field staff developed and implement drug control and crime prevention programmes bespoke to countries particular needs. They have launched a range of initiatives, including the areas of illicit drug crop cultivation, or monitoring of illicit crops and the implementation of projects against money. UNODC work programmes are divided in three pillars. II. Statement of the problem: Marijuana is one of the most abused drugs in the world, in some countries the usage of marijuana has been legalized, some people think that since marijuana has been legal it is safer, but your body doesn t know a legal drug from an illegal drug, some people say marijuana needs to be legalized because weed can kill cancer cell. Cannabis oil can help fight cancer too; most people now believe smoking dope is safe. A majority of people now believes that smoking weed is 2
safe and no longer worry that a puff on a joint will either kill them, or turn them into a murdering psychopath. Marijuana plant contains chemicals that may help treat a range of illnesses or symptoms, a growing number of states have legalized marijuana for medical use. In Canada medical marijuana was legalized in 2001, it is currently working on legalizing recreational cannabis, Canada s criminal law is federal so it provinces can t pass marijuana on their own. In Colombia they legalized medical marijuana too; In Netherlands marijuana products are available and can be smoked almost in every place. The Eastern European country of Romania legalized medical marijuana in October 2013; the law is they can have products that contain cannabis. Merrigan is an organizer with the group of students for sensible drug policy, and she led a protest outside UN on the three-day United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drug policy which it happens on April 20 they date serves as the unofficial High Holiday for marijuana enthusiastic around the globe. III. Topic Information: A. History of the topic: Marijuana has been used as an agent for achieving euphoria since ancient times, it was described as a Chinese medical reference that was considered traditionally, it spread from China to India and it reached Europe, the focus was on its powers as a medication for rheumatism, gout, malaria, and oddly enough, absent mindedness. Marijuana was grown as a source of fiber; it was cultivated in the World War II, when Asian sources of hemp were cut off. In the 1960s marijuana was used in college hippies and became the symbol of rebellion against authority. Most marijuana at the time came from Mexico, but in 1975 the Mexican government agreed to eradicate the crop by spraying it with herbicide paraquat, raising fears of toxic side effects. The first legalization of marijuana was for medical 3
sources but years later people was using marijuana to smoke and not as a medical source, the federal government try to regulated marijuana rather they prohibited them, less susceptible to be legalized. B. Current issues: The marijuana has been legalized in many countries, some countries legalized the usage of marijuana as a medical cannabis or medical marijuana, cannabis has been used as a pain reliever, it is still used to combat pain, to assist appetite, suppresses nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy and can help millions of people suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis. Marijuana can be used as many ways some countries legalized the usage of smoking marijuana or using any products related to marijuana, but most of the countries haven t legalized the usage of marijuana or some of them can used only medically. Marijuana was outlawed in the US for two major reasons, the first was because All Mexicans are crazy and marijuana is what makes them crazy. The second was the fear that heroin addiction would lead to the use of marijuana exactly the opposite of the modern gateway idea. Marijuana was outlawed at the national level in the US in 1937. Any country that deviates from US ideas on drugs can expect to have problems with the US. Some countries that are being affected of marijuana the most are in Jamaica and Australia 10% of the people use marijuana and it is not legalized, in Spain it is legal to use it personal but cannot be used in public places, in Canada it is illegal for recreational use but legal to use it medically in Nigeria and New Zealand 14% of the population use marijuana but it is illegal. In United States it is legal in 22 states and in D.C. for medical use, in Italy it is illegal to produce of sale. In Zambia and Iceland it is illegal the usage of marijuana. 4
A. United Nations Actions: The status of cannabis in the UN drug conventions is controversial. It is now scheduled among the most dangerous substances. The UN secretary General Kofi Annan, who headed the world organization in 1998, he declared: We need to accept that a drugs free world is an illusion saying that it was time to legalize the personal use of drugs, world leaders and activities around the globe are calling the UN to use the session to move the global war on drugs away from criminalization, prohibition and toward criminal justice reform, public health efforts and human rights initiatives, the UN is trying to convince people that they should legalize marijuana as a medical source and not as smoking weed by the places they want. The UN has not done almost anything because they say that every country should do whatever they want to do with their countries, ENCOD is a organization in Canada that involves the UN, the ENCOD European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies this organization exists since 1993, one of the main goal of this organization is to obtain more transparency and democracy in the drug policy making process. MPP that states for Marijuana Policy Proyect is another large and leading organization from the US they fight against the prohibition of marijuana this organization exist since 1995, this organization believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is prison, so their focus is on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use, the MPP s vision is to regulated marijuana as alcohol. IV. Conclusion: Marijuana has been legalized in many countries, The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) believes marijuana needs to be removed from the criminal justice system and regulated like tobacco or alcohol. Some proposals regarding the position of legalizing drugs is the following, drugs get legalized, to create a regulation system which would have a range of restrictions for different drugs, depending on their perceived risk, so while some drugs would be sold over the pharmacies, or other licensed establishments, drugs with greater risk of harm would only be available for sale on licensed locals where use could be monitored and emergency, marijuana 5
has some benefits such as we can use marijuana as a medical source and marijuana is better than tobacco and we can say that legalizing marijuana can be great if we use it as a medical source, I will try to convince all countries to legalize marijuana because if someone has cancer we could make them use marijuana and it won t heart, but I think that marijuana has its pros and cons it has a lot of cons such as people will be smoking weed everywhere, some pros is we can help fight cancer with the marijuana but we should maybe legalized only as medically and not also to use any product that contains marijuana and cannabis, cannabis can be as a oil, or in a syringe, I think cannabis is bad if we used as in oil or as anything you use that is marijuana. V. Essential Questions: Have your country already legalized marijuana? Is your country trying to legalize marijuana? What are some solutions that your country can do to prevent the legalization of drugs? Why does your country think that they should legalize marijuana? or why not? Why is marijuana illegal in your country? Why does your delegation think about legalizing marijuana? How can legalizing drugs affect the society? How can your country help to decrease the number of people consuming marijuana? VI. Bibliography: Marijuana effects recovered from http://luxury.rehabs.com/marijuanarehab/social-impact-and-effects-of-marijuana/ States of marijuana legalized recovered from http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-states-legalized-weed-2016-11 6
Why did some countries have not legalized marijuana recovered from https://www.quora.com/why-did-marijuana-become-illegal-in-somecountries-and-legal-in-others What countries have already legalized marijuana? recovered from https://mic.com/articles/144176/in-countries-where-weed-is-legal-this-is-thehellscape-they-ve-become#.knrrk35qn weed and the UN recovered from https://news.vice.com/article/weed-andthe-un-why-international-drug-laws-wont-stop-legalization In which countries is marijuana legalized? recovered from http://greenito.com/news/what-countries-is-marijuana-legal/ Marijuana recovered from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana Drug abuse world recovered from http://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts/marijuana.html Marijuana laws recovered from http://www.governing.com/gov-data/statemarijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html 7