The World Health Organization met in Geneva, Switzerland, last week to review the agency’s first-ever review of the health and safety of cannabis.
It’s an early step as the global health agency, an office of the United Nations, prepares to issue a recommendation to the UN on the “need for and level of international control” over the plant, which is broadly prohibited under international drug treaties.
The top-level takeaway: Cannabis, the report found, is a “relatively safe drug” that millions of people are already using to help manage a wide range of medical conditions.
As part of the report, the agency surveyed 953 cannabis patients from 31 countries. Most said they’d been using cannabis-based medicines for several years and are currently being advised on treatment by a doctor, although a majority said they’d also tried cannabis prior to getting a physician’s recommendation.
The medical conditions for which cannabinoids were most often used as treatment