State Department official calls for 'flexibility' on drug control treaties

The Huffington Post (US)
Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Assistant Secretary of State William Brownfield called for "flexible" interpretations of international drug control treaties at the United Nations in New York City, citing marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington. Brownfield's remarks were the third time this year he has made such a call. The high-profile venue underscores the pressure that state legalization efforts have put on the U.S. to allow other countries to amend strict, decades-old international drug control treaties. However, Brownfield's claim that current treaties are flexible enough to allow marijuana legalization is at odds with the text of the treaties themselves, said John Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).