ABSTRACT
The principal objective of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961[1] and previous international conventions, to limit the use of narcotic drugs to legitimate medical and scientific purposes, reflects the consensus among all governments that the medical use of narcotic drugs continues to be indispensable for the relief of pain and suffering and that adequate provision must be made to ensure the availability of narcotic drugs for such purposes.[2] Guided by a similar principle, states recognized in the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 that the availability of psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes should not be unduly restricted.[3] Adequate availability and limitation were considered by the States parties to the 1961 Convention and the 1971 Convention as two complementary, not mutually exclusive, aims and were thus incorporated in the control provisions of those conventions. In adopting such aims, governments were motivated by two complementary humanitarian considerations, namely the need to provide optimal help and relief for pain and suffering and the need to protect the individual and society from drug dependence and its detrimental consequences.1
