The international community and INCB are concerned over the wide availability of cannabis seeds. In March 2009 the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, in its resolution 52/5, requested INCB to gather from Member States information on trade in cannabis seeds.
The Board is now in the process of collecting regulatory information on cannabis seeds, after sending to all Governments a questionnaire pertaining that issue.
A number of countries have reported an increase in illicit cultivation of cannabis plants, particularly of plants cultivated indoors. Also the content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the active ingredient in the cannabis plant – of some varieties of the cannabis plant is reportedly increasing. The wide availability of cannabis seeds sold over the Internet contributes to that development.
In particular, INCB is deeply concerned about Internet sites selling cannabis seeds and related advertisements obviously incite the illicit cultivation of cannabis plants.
Even if cannabis seeds, as such, are not controlled uner the 1961 UN Drug Convention, INCB notes that article 3,§1 (c) (iii) of the 1988 UN Drug Convention requires States to establish as a criminal offence, inter alia, public incitement or inducement of others to engage in the illicit cultivation of cannabis or to use cannabis illicitly.
INCB in its report therefore called upon Governments to implement that provision of the 1988 Convention and to take appropriate measures against the sale of cannabis seeds for illicit purposes.
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