Marijuana shouldn’t be classified alongside heroin and parts shouldn’t be controlled at all, the World Health Organisation says.

Long-awaited recommendations from the WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) are recommending that marijuana be removed from the ‘most dangerous’ category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

If the recommendations are adopted, it will mean a loosening of regulations around the world by national drug agencies that take their lead from the international Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, signed in 1961.

And that will means more doors in more countries opening to Australia’s globally-focused pot stocks which currently include Elixinol Global (ASX:EXL), Medlab Clinical (ASX:MDC) and AusCann (ASX:AC8).

The recommendations are for THC, the part of cannabis that produces the famous ‘high’, to be put into the lowest category, Schedule 1.

Cannabidiol (CBD), the part of cannabis that is the focus of many drug companies, and preparations containing less than 0.2 per cent THC, should be de-scheduled completely.

Thee WHO’s recommendations were expected in December.

The 53 countries that are signatories to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) was expected to vote on them in March. But this may be postponed until next year because of the delay in delivering the report.

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