ABSTRACT
For thousands of years drugs have been employed to relieve pain and aid control of disease, to combat fatigue and hunger, or to alleviate boredom and despair. A great range of products found in nature, herbs, plants and roots, have had supposed curative properties, either in popular practice and superstition or, together with synthetic products, as additives or specially prepared doses administered medically. The relaxing or stimulating side-effects have conferred on a number of these drugs a reputation as providers of serenity, elation and power, an element of magic. The global problems of narcotics are the concern of this chapter. A brief look at the attempts to enforce drug
control in the first years of this century is followed by an account of how the UN has been brought in to legislate and set up a system for active control. The comprehensive work of the UN Drug Control Headquarters in Vienna, in association with UN Specialized Agencies, is considered, together with its global strategy for dealing with drug production, trafficking and abuse. Finally, mention is made of some of the possible trends of the problem.
