Cross-border Trade and Rescheduling of Cannabis by the UN - Small Step or Giant Leap

Chuck Menahem Kanafi Related Seminars and Products

Principal

kanafilaw

Ambassador Menahem (Chuck) Kanafi is an advocate and third-party neutral focusing on resolving cross-border commercial disputes with experience in India, the US, Israel, Africa and Germany. He studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as an Appellate Prosecutor and Senior Civil Law Counsel in government. Thereafter, Chuck embarked on a three-decades long diplomatic career including legal, political and UN functions, culminating with ambassadorial posts in Ghana, Eritrea and as Consul-General in South India.

Upon retirement from the Foreign Service, Chuck established himself in private collaborative legal practice concentrating on mediating disputes in international trade and legal aspects of the medical cannabis industry, specifically focusing on international commercial disputes. Chuck is admitted to practice in Israel and New York State and in Israel and maintains a presence in New York, Berlin and Tel Aviv. Chuck serves on the Advisory Boards of a number of educational ADR initiatives in India, has served as a judge in international mediation competitions, is a member of the International Committee of the International Cannabis Bar Association, and has moderated panels at their Cannabis Law Institute 2019.
 

John Walsh Related Seminars and Products

Director for Drug Policy

Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

Mr. Walsh has written extensively on the need to reassess drug policy goals, strategies, and indicators, focused on limits and harms of supply-control efforts under a prohibitionist framework. Connecting domestic U.S. reforms to the international drug policy debate, Walsh has worked extensively on the implication of cannabis legalization for the prohibtiionist UN drug contorl treaties, co-authoring the report “Balancing Treaty Stability and Change: Inter se modification of the UN drug control conventions to facilitate cannabis regulation." His work has contributed to the expansion of the international drug policy reform debate, and been instrumental in convening reform advocates and practitioners from across the hemisphere to discuss design and evaluation of legal, regulated cannabis.

A frequent commentator on drug policy developments in the U.S. and Latin America, Mr. Walsh has been quoted in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, and numerous television and international news outlets. In addition to his congressional testimony, publications, press appearances, Mr. Walsh has organized and spoken at numerous U.S. and international conferences. Prior to joining WOLA, he served as director of research at Drug Strategies and worked at the Center of Concern on the “Rethinking Bretton Woods Project,” an effort to forge consensus on ideas for reform of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and international trade arrangements.

He received a B.A. in Theology from Georgetown University (1986) and an M.A. in Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University (1997).

Proffessor Jallal Toufiq Related Seminars and Products

International Narcotics Control Board

Born in 1963. National of Morocco. Head of the National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention and Research; Director of the Moroccan National Observatory on Drugs and Addictions; Director of the Ar-razi University Psychiatric Hospital and Professor of Psychiatry at the Rabat Faculty of Medicine.

Medical Doctor, Rabat Faculty of Medicine (1989); Diploma of Specialization in Psychiatry (1994); and lecturer at the Rabat Faculty of Medicine (since 1995). Undertook specialized training in Paris at the Sainte-Anne Psychiatric Hospital and Marmottan Centre (1990-1991); and at Johns Hopkins University as a National Institute on Drug Abuse research fellow and Clinical Observer (1994-1995). Conducted research at the University of Pittsburgh (1995); and gained Clinical Drug Research certificates at the Vienna School of Clinical Research (2001 and 2002).

Currently holding positions in Morocco as Head of the Harm Reduction Programme, National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention and Research; teaching and residency training coordinator, Ar-razi Hospital; Director of the National Diploma Programme on Treatment and Prevention of Drug Abuse, Rabat Faculty of Medicine; Director of the National Diploma Programme on Child Psychiatry, Rabat Faculty of Medicine and Member of the Ministry of Health Commission on Drug Abuse.

At the international level, Representative of the Mediterranean Network (MedNET) for Morocco (MedNET/Pompidou Group/Council of Europe); former permanent correspondent of the Pompidou Group for Morocco (Council of Europe) on drug abuse prevention and research and former member of the Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use. Founding member and steering committee member, Middle East and North Africa Harm Reduction Association (MENAHRA); Director of Knowledge Hub Ar-razi for North Africa, MENAHRA; Member, Mentor International Scientific Advisory Network (drug abuse prevention in youth); former focal point/expert on prevention, United Nations Office on Drug Control and Crime Prevention (local network for North Africa); founding member, MedNET (advisory group on AIDS and drug abuse policies) of the Council of Europe, and member of the Reference Group to the United Nations on HIV and Injecting Drug Use.

Held consultancy roles with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, UNODC and other international institutions, research fellowships and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the United States. Published widely in the field of psychiatry, alcohol and drug abuse.

Member of the International Narcotics Control Board (since 2015) [1]. Member of the Standing Committee on Estimates (2015). Chair (2021) and Member (2016) of the Committee on Finance and Administration. First Vice-President of the Board (2018).