WHO, the international public health agency of the United Nations, officially recommended on Dec. 14 that cannabidiol (CBD), the relaxant property of cannabis used in medical marijuana, “not be internationally scheduled as a controlled substance.”

News of WHO’s reconsideration of CBD, which is said to account for 40 percent of the marijuana plant’s extracts, was reported on Dec. 14 by the London-based dailymail.co.uk and the Denver website westword.com.

Westword.com said that “Raul Elizalde, a medical marijuana advocate and president of hemp-CBD company HempMeds Mexico, spoke with the WHO during its 39th annual meeting of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) in November.

“Elizalde helped spearhead Mexico’s legalization in June of medical marijuana with less than 1 percent THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), and hoped to persuade WHO to do something similar by not acting—or in this case, not scheduling.”

Meanwhile, dailymail.co.uk quoted other parts of the WHO report: “There is increased interest from member states in the use of cannabis for medical indications including for palliative care.

More of this news at Inquirer.net