Dear Friend

Today, in Vienna, Austria,  the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) made the historic decision to  remove cannabis and its resin from Schedule IV under the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. The Schedule IV placement is intended for drugs that are dangerous and lack therapeutic importance. 

Thanks in part to the hundreds of messages sent from you, our members and supporters, to the U.S. Delegation to the CND from our action alert sent yesterday, the United States was among the 27 countries that voted in favor of deleting cannabis from Schedule IV. Finally removing cannabis from Schedule IV after 60 years in this strictest international category means that the UN now recognizes cannabis as medicine with therapeutic benefits. 

As you may know, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and our program, the International Medical Cannabis Patients Coalition (IMCPC), has been fighting to remove cannabis from this Schedule at the United Nations for over a decade. We even created our own critical review in 2016 that was delivered to the UN. We also sent patients from around the world to the CND last year to advocate for this measure. 

But, the fight for patients in the United States is still not over.  While this is a momentous occasion for patients everywhere, the U.S. government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug in the U.S. Control Substances Act (CSA).  Schedule I of the CSA is the most restrictive category for drugs in the U.S. and does not recognize that cannabis has medical use.  

Now is the time to put much needed pressure on the U.S. government to do the same and reclassify cannabis to the least restrictive schedule. We need your help now more than ever! Please help keep this momentum going by supporting us today with a donation!

For more information on the UN descheduling and its impact on patients, check out our blog. 

Sincerely, 

Debbie Churgai
Executive Director
Americans for Safe Access
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/