ABSTRACT
International measures to control drug abuse and dependence were initiated at the beginning of the twentieth century, with the convening of the International Opium Commission at Shanghai, China, in 1919. Several multilateral treaties were signed in the following years and the international drug control system was modernized by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which was adopted in 1961 and was subsequently widened and strengthened by the 1972 Protocol. When additional problems arose due to the introduction of new, synthetic psychoactive drugs which were widely used for the effective treatment of mental illness but which were often accompanied by the development of dependence and abuse, the international community negotiated and adopted the Convention on Psychotropic Substances in 1971 which extended the international drug control system to cover some of these new drugs. The 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance was introduced to prevent and effectively act against the scourge of illicit drug trafficking and deprive drug traffickers of their ill-gotten gains.[1]
The United Nations international drug control Conventions are designed to ensure the safe use of potentially dangerous psychoactive substances. The treaties recognize that these substances often have legitimate scientific and medicinal uses that must be protected but that their abuse gives rise to public health, social and economic problems. Vigorous measures, involving close international cooperation, are required to restrict their use to legitimate purposes.[1]
The Conventions list the controlled substances in different schedules with different levels of control, depending on the balance between therapeutic usefulness and the risk of abuse. Countries that become party to the Conventions are obliged to adopt appropriate legislation, introduce necessary administrative and enforcement measures and cooperate with international drug control agencies and with other parties to the Conventions. Internationally devised measures are thus translated into national controls by individual states within their own legal systems.[1]
The Single Convention puts strict controls on the cultivation of the opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis plant and their products, which, for the purpose of the Convention, are described as ‘narcotics’, although cocaine is a stimulant drug rather than one which induces sleep.
