Russia and the U.N. are condemning the Trudeau government’s legalization of recreational marijuana as a breach of international law.
The bill to legalize cannabis was passed by Canada’s Parliament and is en route to the Governor General for Royal Assent. Trudeau said the drug will be legal throughout Canada on Oct. 17, 2018.
As Global News reports, the Russian ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement Thursday that Canada “deliberately decided to breach” international law by becoming only the second country in the world to legalize recreational pot. Uruguay was the first.
“We expect Canada’s partners in the G7 to respond to its ‘high-handedness’ because this alliance has repeatedly declared its adherence to the domination of international law in relations between states,” reads the statement.
But the U.N. is also saying Canada is out of order with its legislation, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) issuing this stern rebuke:
“UNODC regrets the Canadian legislature’s decision to legalize cannabis for non-medical use,” reads a statement from the agency. “As noted by the International Narcotics Control Board in its statement of 21 June, this decision contravenes the provisions of the drug control conventions, and undermines the international legal drug control framework and respect for the rules-based international order.”
Critics of Trudeau’s marijuana legalization plan have consistently said that the legislation is a violation of several international agreements on drug and narcotics control that Canada has signed.