ECAD has just received a letter of concern regarding ubiquitous promotion of marijuana use in the media in one of our member cities in the EU. The letter is appealing to the attention of the UN Secretary General.

We choose to publish this letter immediately and urge our members to spread the message through social media.

To Ban Ki Mun
The Secretary-General of UN

 Dear Mr Secretary-General,

The Municipality Council Against Drug Addiction in Blagoevgrad turns to you in relation to June 26 - International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

We want to give voice to our protests against the advertising of marijuana in our everyday life. This leads to brainwashing (as it is called) of our kids and youths, but also of parents. 
Relentless attempts at convincing our society that marijuana use is harmless and even healthy and helpful (that we see in different interviews and TV shows with pseudo-specialists, also movies and documentaries preaching about marijuana as a therapy means for lots of illnesses), lead to strong reactions from parents who deem this information scandalous, as we refer to moral and medicine.

Parents forbid their children to smoke tobacco and the media gives them advice to smoke marijuana instead. That is a heavy crime against both children and parents. The UN cannot approve of the harm to children’s health and take on a line of passive inaction and a lack of position in regard to this issue, especially on the 26^th of June – the International day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  And yes, we do have cases of strong psychotic conditions among 15-16-year-old students because of the use of "weed".

We fully understand the endless amount of profit that marijuana trade brings to its dealers because  addictions can generate endless benefits to organized crime networks, to the mafia. The position of the UN must be to relentlessly protect the victims of this monstrous present-day “plague”, namely the drugs, and that - every single day!
The priority of each and every spokesman of all countries around the world ought to be a healthy life and welfare of children, not the power and money of narcobarons. This should be understood by humankind.

We don’t turn to the International Health Organization, because its silence in connection to this question – the drug use among children – is against the main principle of medicine- first of all, don’t do any harm! It is completely intolerable that doctors, wherever they are and whatever their main specialty is, can by their action or inaction harm children and adults.

We insist on a Resolution of the UN, to unconditionally state that drugs and selling drugs cannot be viewed as an official trade of goods, because, as it was already said, drugs destroy the freedom of choice, human intellectual capacity and turn the addicts into contemporary slaves.

We suppose that the 26^{th  of} June – the International Day  against Drug Abuse - could bring the names of Veronica Guerin and Giovani Falcone to our minds and keep them deep in our hearts. We believe that there is no explanation needed here.

Sincerely,                                                                         

Temenujka Liubenova , MD
Head of McADA Blagoevgrad

Bulgaria

Translated by Kristiana Buldeeva

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