I have just watched the closing plenary session of the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on the world drug problem here in New York. Presidents and Prime Ministers will now move on to the climate change summit that opens tomorrow, and the thousands of government and NGO delegates who have filled the UN building in Manhattan over the last 3 days will catch their flights back to all corners of the globe. So was it worth it – three years of preparation, tens of millions of dollars of travel and meeting costs, and countless hours of debate and negotiation. Is the international community any better placed to reduce the health, social and economic problems associated with illicit drug markets?

US

The hardline drug policies adopted during the 1980s in the “war on drugs”, including mandatory minimum sentences for some drug-related crimes, has led to extremely high levels of incarceration in the country. The US has more than 2 million people in its jails – the second highest rate of incarceration per capita in the world – about half of whom were convicted of drugs-related crimes.

Marijuana legalization has been a political issue in the United States for some time, and while it remains illegal in most states, others have softened their stance in recent years. Colorado and Washington both passed initiatives by popular vote to decriminalize and legalize cannabis in 2012. In 2014, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., followed suit. Many states including Massachusetts, California, Missouri, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada and Ohio have flirted with legalization for a few election cycles, with buzz growing.

The United States isn't the only country where people use marijuana legally or illicitly. In fact, it isn’t even the country with the highest reported marijuana use.

The global tide concerning marijuana legalization is slowly turning. Amsterdam, with its famous coffeeshops where smoking cannabis is OK, was once the international city most associated with legally smoking marijuana. But more countries are passing legislation either decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana in some form. In fact, almost half the states in the United States have legalized marijuana somehow — with more likely to follow suit. 

One of the top cage fighters in Britain has been jailed for a year for running a series of cannabis farms with his in-laws. Karel "Karlos" Vemola, a title-holding mixed martial artist originally from the Czech Republic, was convicted alongside his former partner Sarah Sharp and her elderly parents at St Albans crown court.

The 30-year-old had convinced Linda Sharp, 70, and her partner Terrance Byman, 72, to invest in a business running at least three cannabis farms in Potters Bar and Bushey in Hertfordshire, the court heard. They had seen the venture as "an ideal way to top up their pensions".

Vemola, whose nickname in the ring is "the Terminator", had started using the drug to help with the pain he sustained from his fighting injuries, the court was told.

Members of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), KOPAC and Dioscorides Global Holdings (DGH) were joined by the Minister of Health for the Czech Republic recently to announce the establishment of a new research center, the International Cannabis and Cannabinoid Institute (ICCI) – intended to foster evidence-based exploration with a modern scientific approach to refine the therapeutic applicability of cannabis-based medicines in the Czech Republic. ICCI will identify, coordinate and support global research priorities for the advancement of cannabis and cannabinoid treatments through a multidisciplinary evidence based approach that incorporates innovative tools and approaches.

The Czech Republic took a bold step back in 2013 when lawmakers agreed to legalise the sale of medicinal cannabis or marihuana. But the development of this market, which can conceivably challenge that of the established pharmaceutical companies across a wide range of pain killers and treatments, is showing some local and global growing pains.

One of those seeking to develop the market for medical cannabis in the Czech Republic and Europe is Prague-based Sean Carney, actually a former business journalist. He is now working as the director of business development and government for Europe for the Canadian cannabis company Tilray. It has a license to produce, process, and manufacture medicinal cannabis products from the Canadian federal government. 

Hana Gabrielová, CEO of Hempoint, studied agriculture in the Czech Republic where she learned about the historical importance of hemp farming in her country. After working for several environmental NGOs, she decided to shift her focus to creating a company utilizing a once traditional Czech crop in new and exciting ways. Thus, in 2010 Hempoint was born.

Hempoint’s product range boasts around 30 wonderfully tasty hemp based products which they currently sell throughout Europe. It includes a selection of hemp teas, hemp seed cookies, hemp oil and even hemp seed paste (like peanut butter only hempier!).

A centre for research into the use of cannabis in medicine officially opened in Prague on Tuesday. The International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute has been created with the help of 500 million crown donations from the US and Canada and represents the biggest foreign investment in Czech medicine in recent years.

The International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute was established by a Canadian investor Benjamin Bronfman and its aim is to explore the use of medical marihuana and its components both with regard to existing medical knowledge and the experiences of patients.

Tomáš Zábranský, the country’s leading drug expert and the head of science and research at the institute explains why it was established in the Czech Republic:

Center is biggest recent private investment in medical research, according to minister

Prague, (ČTK) — The International Cannabis and Cannaboids Institute (ICCI) was opened in Prague today with U.S. and Canadian investors contributing half a billion crowns, which Health Minister Svatopluk Němeček said is the biggest private investment in Czech medical research in the past years.

The institute, for which Professor Lumir Hanus, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will also work, wants to contribute to the use of cannabis in the treatment of various diseases based on research evidence and the patients´ experience.

ICCI managing director Pavel Kubů said the research is to contribute to the tailor-made treatment of patients.