Up in Smoke: International Treaty Obligations and Marijuana Reform in the United States

Abstract

As the number of U.S. states that seek to loosen restrictions on marijuana rapidly increases, a heated debate over state and federal regulation has ignited. But an important component of that debate has been largely absent—are these state efforts placing the United States in violation of its international treaty obligations? This article attempts to answer this question by tracing the history of marijuana regulation both in the United States and abroad and outlining the foundations for domestic legislation. It argues that the experiments happening among a number of states and countries to liberalize marijuana laws are bearing fruit and should be tied to a broader reform agenda of the same international narcotics treaties that the United States sought decades ago.