The INCB's participation at CND showed how far the Board has come in terms of supporting human rights norms in the pursuit of drug control obligations, but the Board's outdated inflexibility on cannabis is regrettable.
To remain relevant, INCB would do well to support governments to negotiate this new terrain rather than seeking to stall and undermine developments in cannabis legislation.
The response by the Board's President to a Thai party including the legal regulation of cannabis in their electoral platform is beyond disproportionate.
The INCB’s intervention was an overwhelmingly positive one, promoting better access to controlled medicines, as well as an end to the application of the death penalty and extrajudicial killings in the name of drug control.
The INCB Watch is running a short series of posts to explore how the Board has changed – or remained the same – over the past decade or so. This post gives an overview of the areas we will analyse in the course of this project.