| dc.description.abstract | This thesis examines the inclusion of cannabis in the League of Nations´ Second Geneva Opium Conference of 1924-25 and its final convention. This conference was designed to control and restrict the international traffic of opium and other dangerous drugs. By analyzing primary sources from the League of Nations archive connected to the conference, supplied with secondary literature, the paper analyzes the imperial mindset and racial biases of the actors involved in the process. The thesis follows the journey of cannabis from the establishment of a “native problem” in South Africa and Egypt in the late 1800s to the early 1900s, to the development into a global problem when brought to the League of Nations through South African prime minister Jan Smuts and later Egyptian first delegate, Mohamed El Guindy. The paper argues that the League was born out of imperial beliefs, which shaped its structure and policies. The arguments for domestic policies against cannabis use were grounded on racialization and class-based altitudes. This is also evident on the international level, where prejudice rhetoric convinced the assembly of the dangers of cannabis. As the paper argues, imperialist biases rather than scientific facts marked the decision of including cannabis in the Second Geneva Opium Conference and Convention. The thesis seeks to further our understanding of the arguments behind early domestic and international cannabis legislation, inspired by contemporary debates of structural racism and cannabis legalization. It builds on and adds to the scholarly fields of cannabis history and international history, by combining the regional and international level to explain the racist roots of international cannabis regulation. | eng |