ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of the international drug control system from its origins to the adoption of the contemporary UN Drug Conventions. It focuses on two aspects: first, the replacement of nineteenth-century uncoordinated bilateralism on drugs by one coherent rule, confining all substances covered to medical and scientific purposes. Second, the material expansion of the drug control system from opium to other plant-based and synthetic drugs. Having outlined the emergence of the international drug control system, the following section anchors this development within the wider context of international law's evolution during the twentieth century. The interwar period saw a further expansion and institutionalization of the international drug control system. The scope of application of the international drug control system was not further extended until 1948, when the first new drug control treaty negotiated under the auspice of the newly created United Nations was signed in Paris.
