Marijuana
Adam Eidinger, co-owner of Capitol Hemp is a leader in the push to fully legalize the possession and use (of up to two ounces) of marijuana and the possession and cultivation of up to three marijuana plants. Getty Images

UN anti-narcotics chief said on Wednesday (12 November) that US states' move to legalize marijuana is not in line with international drugs conventions.

I don't see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions.
- Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Residents across Oregon, Alaska and the US capital voted in favor of legalizing marijuana use this month.

Oregon and Alaska might even legalize recreational use of marijuana.

"I don't see how (the new laws) can be compatible with existing conventions," Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), told reporters.

Fedotov will be discussing the increasing recognition of marijuana in American mainstream next week in Washington with the US State Department and other UN agencies.

Under US federal law, marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic.

The Obama administration, however, has allowed individual states to determine their own recreational-use statues.

Fedotov fears the US developments might be the start of a global trend of legalizing marijuana use.

In 2013, Uruguay became the first country to approve a bill to legalize and regulate the production and sale of marijuana.

Marijuana
Some of the candy edibles are kept in plastic cases on the wall, ready to be scanned for purchase. Euflora, the first retail marijuana store in Aurora, opens on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014. Getty Images
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