Oui, la légalisation de la marijuana enfreint les traités. Mais on peut y faire face

L'état actuel des obligations internationales rend inévitable un compromis avec les conventions sur les drogues. Pour en savoir plus, en Anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

By John Walsh, Tom Blickman, Martin Jelsma and Dave Bewley-Taylor.

Buzzing in the background of Canada’s debate on cannabis legalization is the issue of the three UN drug control treaties, and what to do with them.

The issue arose during the House of Commons’ consideration of Bill C-45, and may well come up again now that the bill is coming under Senate scrutiny. There is no doubt that legalizing and regulating cannabis markets for non-medical use will mean Canada is no longer in compliance with the obligation under the treaties to restrict cannabis to “medical and scientific” purposes. And Canada will need to address those treaties — in due time.

However, what ‘due time’ should mean has been the subject of some alarmist commentaries. It has been argued that Canada should have initiated the process of withdrawing from the treaties by this past July 1 to avoid a breach of international law when cannabis is legal for recreational use in July, 2018, as the government intends. Some have suggested that, by missing this supposed deadline, Canada has now limited its legal options and might even suffer international sanctions if its reforms continue as scheduled.

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Thumbnail: CC Flickr Tony Webster