Every country except for the United States voted against placing HHC under the Schedule II in the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
In turn, the U.S. voted no. Officials said in a subsequent statement that they “could not vote” both on the HHC and another proposal being voted upon which placed carisoprodol on Schedule IV.
“While the United States supports the use of the international scheduling system to make scientifically-informed decisions about international drug control, we were unable to vote on the proposals,” the statement said. “However, these two substances are currently controlled in the United States. At levels that allow us to comply with our international obligations, arising out of today’s CND decision.”
In the statement, there was no explanation as to why America could not vote.
CND also approved the regulation of four non-cannabis compounds in accordance with international law.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime, in a post on social media, called these actions “critical decisions on controlling harmful substances.”
This body has said that these decisions “shape drug policies, laws enforcement and public safety worldwide”.
Today, #CND68, countries made critical decisions on the control of harmful substances—including four synthetic opioids of the nitazene class, hexahydrocannabinol and carisoprodol.
The decisions made here will have a global impact on drug policy, public health and law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/YS9obfeYfc— UN Office on Drugs & Crime (@UNODC) March 12, 2025
A representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), who spoke before the vote, explained that the psychoactive cannabinoid HHC was “found only in trace quantities” in the cannabis plant but is typically synthesized by cannabidiol. Officials said that the spray is often sprayed onto cannabis flowers with low THC levels, since its effects are similar to delta-9 THC.
Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA in the U.S.A. states that HHC is not a natural cannabinoid. Terrance Boos of the DEA Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section wrote in a letter from 2023 that HHC is not a naturally occurring cannabinoid and cannot be synthesized. It therefore doesn’t fall under hemp.
The substance has never been reviewed by WHO, and it was also not previously controlled internationally.
The WHO was informed that the substance in question is produced clandestinely. This poses a danger to public safety and does not have any recognized therapeutic uses.
WHO stated that HHC had been detected in “addicts driving while under the influence and patients admitted to clinics with drug intoxication for adults and kids in several countries, where hexahydrocannabinol has also been confirmed as the sole substance present.”
The countries voting to put HHC under Schedule II of the international treaty were Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Hungary, Peru, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, Tanzania, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.
Separately, a forthcoming review from WHO on coca leaf—from which cocaine is derived—has advocates watching for the possible rescheduling of the leaves.
Filter reports that World Health Organization is likely to have three choices: either recommend that coca be transferred to Schedule II (which has less restrictions), or suggest its removal from treaty schedules.
In a separate UN statement, late last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called upon the international community, to stop pursuing punitive criminal policies against drugs, stating that “the global war on drug has failed completely and absolutely.”
These comments follow a declaration made by UN experts, special rapporteurs and working groups in the past year, which stated that the war on drugs “has led to a wide range of grave human rights violations as documented over time by many UN human rights experts.”
The statement pointed, for example, to what it called a “landmark report” published by the UN special rapporteur on human rights that encouraged nations to abandon the criminal war on drugs and instead adopt harm-reduction policies—such as decriminalization, supervised consumption sites, drug checking and widespread availability of overdose reversal drugs like naloxone—while also moving toward “alternative regulatory approaches” for currently controlled substances.
In 2023, meanwhile 19 Latin American and Caribbean nations issued a joint statement acknowledging the need to rethink the global war on drugs and instead focus on “life, peace and development” within the region.
A separate UN special rapporteurs report said that “the ‘war on drugs’ may be understood to a significant extent as a war on people.”
They said that the impact of poverty was greatest for those living in it, and often overlapped with other forms of discrimination against minorities, Indigenous Peoples, marginalised groups.
In 2019, the UN Chief Executives Board (CEB), which represents 31 UN agencies including the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), adopted a position stipulating that member states should pursue science-based, health-oriented drug policies—namely decriminalization.
The United States is the world’s leading financier for international efforts to fight the drug trade, despite changing attitudes on the local and state levels.
The report, published by two groups critical of drug policy in the United States last year, found that 13 billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds have been used to finance worldwide anti-narcotics operations since 2015. These activities often come at the expense efforts to reduce global poverty and contribute to environmental damage as well as international human rights violations.
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