Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

largely because of World War I, which began soon after the passing of the

Convention. It was put into force only with the signing of the Versailles

and other peace treaties which specified that their ratification was

tantamount to the ratification of the 1912 Hague Convention on drugs.

International documents approved following the Hague Convention just

filled in the gaps and developed its provisions. The need for such

documents was prompted by the continuous expansion of drug addiction, and

of the illegal trade and smuggling of various narcotics. These documents

are kept within the demands of the present problems that had been approved

at the international level. They had defined more precisely and expanded

the range of questions pertaining to the regulation of the issue on the

basis of international law. They also involved more and more countries

concerned about combating narcotics.

The growing threat from narcotics was evident from a series of

international acts on drugs. Apart from that, however, the passing of these

acts marked an important stage in international relations. They affirmed

the principle that international law was bound to help organize and ensure

control over drugs. The case in point was the Agreement banning the

production, domestic trade and use of refined opium. It was signed on

February 11th 1925 at the Geneva Opium conference.

Following the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty and the founding

of the League of Nations this conference was the first to discuss the issue

of narcotics.

Its official program envisaged the development of measures to implement

the decisions of the 1912 Hague Convention to limit and eliminate the

production, domestic trade and use of smoke opium. But according to

juridical literature, the Conference in reality expressed the latent

interests of the colonial powers- the signatories of the above mentioned

Agreement.

The Geneva Conference of 1925 Agreement of February 11th, 1925:

The Agreement provided for the establishment of monopoly associations

on the territories and domains controlled by these powers to deal with the

opium turnover, for handing over the production of smoke opium to the state

monopoly, as well as conducting anti-opium propaganda.

The general control over the implementation of the Agreement's

provisions concerning the trade in opium was placed upon the League of

Nations- an international body set up in accordance with the Versailles

peace treaty.

One of the provisions of this Agreement stipulated the need to study

the state of control over smoke opium in the Far East. This study was

carried out, practically for the first time in world practice, by a Special

Commission appointed by the League of Nations Assembly in 1928.

The results of the study were examined in Bangkok and paved the way for

the signing of the Bangkok Agreement of November 27th 1931, which banned

opium smoking. The Agreement entered into force only in April 1937.

The Bangkok Agreement of 1931:

The Bangkok Agreement added some new provisions to the Geneva Agreement of

11th February 1925. These new provisions made retail trade in opium

possible only by government institutions; established criminal offence for

persons under 21 years of age who visited opium dens; legally regulated the

sale of smoke opium for cash and so on and so forth.

However, prior to the Bangkok Agreement, in view of the deterioration

of the drug situation in the world in the postwar period, the second Geneva

Opium Conference passed an Opium Convention that was signed in Geneva on

19th February 1925 and entered into force in September 1928.

The Opium Convention of 1925:

It underlined that there was no way to end drug abuse and drug

smuggling unless the production of those drugs was reduced considerably and

a more stringent control over their international trade was introduced than

the one stipulated by the 1912 Hague convention.

For this end, the 1925 Convention stipulated some legal and

organizational measures against drug abuse both at the international and

domestic levels.

This Convention confirmed the principles of the 1912 Hague Convention

and, what is more, it firmly established that drugs could be produced only

for the legal purposes of states, having defined what these legal purposes

were. Of principal importance was the decision to put several more kinds of

raw materials which drugs could be produced from (coca leaves, raw cocaine,

and cannabis) on the list of the controlled substances (in addition to the

ones named by the 1912 Hague Convention). Moreover, the Convention was

applicable to any substance, which, in accordance with the conclusion drawn

by an authorized body, could cause the same harmful consequences as the

substances listed in the Convention.

To exercise domestic control over narcotic substances the parties to

the Convention agreed to the following pledges: to pass national laws that

would ensure the control over the production, dissemination and exportation

of raw opium and to systematically revise and toughen those to the extent

that the articles of the Convention would require; to limit the use,

production, importation, sale, distribution, export, and application of

narcotics exclusively to medical and scientific purposes; to exercise

control over the activities of persons who were allowed to produce, import,

export, sell, distribute and use drugs and also to exercise control over

premises where these persons work with drugs or traded in them; to curtail

the number of ports, cities and other populated centers where the

importation and exportation of narcotics would be permitted and to pass

through and adopt domestic legislation that would envisage punitive

measures for the violations of the Convention's provisions.

To exercise international control over narcotic substances the

Convention stipulated adoption of the following measures: to introduce a

system of evaluation and estimation of a country's domestic need in

narcotics for medical, scientific and other purposes in the up-coming year;

to hand in statistics connected with drugs (in a special form and at

definite periods of time); to establish control over international trade in

drugs and to also establish firm rules for the importation and exportation

of drugs (to import and export narcotics only if there is a special written

permission, as outlined by the Convention; to regulate the order of transit

shipments and the storage of drugs at stores of third countries to prevent

their possible leakage from the legal circulation during their shipments

and storage); to establish control over the compliance with all commitments

taken by the countries- parties to the Convention; to place the exercise of

that control on a newly organized international body called the Permanent

Central Committee (later its official name changed several times, although

most of the time, it was known as "The Permanent Central Committee on

Narcotic Substances").

The Convention also stressed the need for cooperation between countries

in preventing the use of narcotic substances for purposes other than

designated. It stipulated that the exchange of information about laws and

decisions on the implementation of the proclaimed principles (using the

services of Secretary General) would be a concrete form of this

cooperation.

To put it in a nutshell, the Convention defined the content and forms

of realization of international control over narcotics. It introduced a

system of licensing and recording foreign trade operations of drugs and

obliged the member countries to submit detailed statistics about such

operations.

The convention on the limitation of production and the regulation of

the distribution of narcotic substances signed on July 13th 1931 in Geneva

proved to be another link in the international control system.

The Convention of 1931:

That Convention meant to introduce amendments to the two already

existing conventions in force, those of 1912 and of 1925. It contained the

following additions: uniform definition of notions, through the control

over drugs. Alternative versions of such notions as "production",

"refining", "processing", "storage reserves", "state storage reserves",

"import-export" and others were removed. For the first time, a list of

medicines containing drugs was established and production, processing, use,

exportation and importation of them would now be controlled. The system of

evaluating and estimating the overall demand for drugs in all countries

regardless of their membership in the given Convention was perfected.

Accountability for the commitments of member governments was enhanced. A

special agency, the Control Commission, was set up to study data from

governments about the quantity of narcotics and accounts about their

receipt and use. In case the Commission found any deviations or the demand

for drugs was too large in its judgment, the Commission had the right to

question the examined figures and carry out its own calculations. The

extradition of criminals was envisaged (under certain conditions) for

committing crimes linked to drugs. The convention stipulated that member-

countries had to have norms in their national legislation concerning the

criminal punishment of persons who encouraged the illegal spread of the

most dangerous forms of drugs.

The Convention also contained some administrative decisions aimed at

perfecting the domestic control over drugs. It urged member-countries, in

particular, to set up a special body that was to apply the Convention's

decisions; regulate, supervise and control the trade in medicines on the

Convention's list; act against toxicomania using all possible measures for

halting its development, and bar, in particular, the illegal trafficking of

toxic substances.

Under the Convention cooperation between member-countries expanded

considerably. Along with the traditional exchange of the texts of legal

acts, an annual report was to be submitted to the Secretary General of the

League of Nations about the Convention's implementation on the territories

of the member-states. The report was to be compiled in accordance with the

model agreed upon by the Consultative Commission on the Turnover of Opium

and other medicines containing harmful substances.

The contracting parties also pledged to inform each other, through the

office of the League of Nations Secretary General, about all the important

cases of illegal drug trafficking. These reports had to highlight sources

or methods of illegal trafficking, the nature and the amount of drugs, the

time and place of their discovery, smuggling methods and sanctions and

measures in acted by the government.

The Geneva Convention of 1936:

The convention against illegal trade in drastic medicines signed on

26th June 1936 in Geneva became the next important document.

That Convention introduced a number of new essential amendments

corresponding with its title containing the word 'struggle', which opened a

prospect for a juridical cooperation in campaigns against drug abuse. The

range of crimes subject to prosecution was outlined and expanded

considerably. Contracting parties pledged to prosecute persons engaged in

the illegal manufacture, storage, shipment, exportation, sale or purchase

of drugs or who organized conspiracies with the aim of premeditated

participation in the illegal drug trade. The Convention also provided for

the extension of reciprocal legal assistance through the exchange of

necessary information to identify and arrest criminals and extradite them

to a foreign country.

World War II pushed the problems of international cooperation and

control of narcotic substances to the background. But right after the end

of the war this problem came to the foreground once again. In view of this,

some international acts were adopted that regulated relations in the area

of narcotics. The following documents seem to be of interest.

The Protocols of 1946 and of 1948:

The Protocol on Drugs signed in Lake Success (New York) on 11th

December, 1946 provided for the introduction of changes into the

agreements, conventions and protocols on drugs signed in the Hague on 23d

January 1912; in Geneva - on 11th February 1925, 19th February 1925 and

13th July 1931; in Bangkok - on 27th November 1931 and in Geneva - on 26th

June 1936. The Protocol on Drugs covered issues that arose in view of the

dissolution of the League of Nations and the transferring of some of its

drug control functions to the Organization of United Nations, the World

Health Organization or its Interim Committee, and of the transferring of

duties of the League of Nations Secretary General- to the UN Secretary

General. The Protocol was the first UN document that introduced necessary

re-naming although in reality changed nothing in the system of control and

cooperation that existed hitherto.

The Protocol signed in Paris on 19th November 1948 dealt with the

establishment of international control on medicines that were not put on

the list of the 1931 Convention which limited the production and regulated

the distribution of narcotics (changes to this Protocol were introduced by

the 1946 Lake Success Protocol).

The signatories of this Protocol pledged to inform the UN about any

substance that could possibly be abused and also to spread control onto

synthetic drugs that had appeared by the time of the signing, and had not

been previously listed in earlier international regulations.

Discussion of drug issues at the international level and the adoption

of decisions under international law brought national legislation closer

together, helped define priorities of the anti-narcotics movement, form an

understanding of the danger posed by narcotics and control the lists of

narcotics whose manufacture and use was subject to international control.

Yet, the existence of such simultaneously operating legal acts and

international bodies failed to ensure sufficient legal regulation and

control of all the issues connected with narcotics. This failure created

certain difficulties for exercising control over drug abuse. The existing

international acts also lagged behind the realities of life.

Many issues remained unresolved. For example, only some narcotic

preparations were controlled whereas the production of raw materials for

the making of synthetic drugs remained uncontrolled. The cultivation and

use of drug-bearing plants and other problems related to narcotics required

a legal regulation. In view of this, two important international acts were

worked out and approved within the United Nations framework. They were the

Uniform Convention on Drugs of 1961 amended later by the 1972 Protocol on

Drugs, and the United Nations Convention of 1988 which provided for action

against the illegal trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances.

One need not think however that the provisions of the earlier approved

acts were so out-dated that they required to be radically changed. The two

Conventions left intact therefore many time-tested provisions of the above-

cited documents. At present they form the main legal foundation for the

system helping exercise international cooperation and control over drugs.

The Uniform Convention of 1961:

The 1961 Uniform Convention regulates questions pertaining to the legal

use of drugs. Its adoption was a landmark in the development of relations

based on international law. The Convention is designed to promote decisive

actions against narcotics at the international level through the building

of a system of international cooperation and control over narcotics. In

fact, this one document is a substitute for all the previously accepted

international acts (with the exception of some points of the 1936

Convention). It diminished the number of international bodies in charge of

the control over narcotics, and established control over the production of

drug-bearing raw materials.

The participants in the Convention expressed the wish to sign a

universally accepted international convention to limit the use of narcotics

to medical and scientific purposes only and to maintain permanent

international cooperation in order to accomplish the principles and aims of

the Convention.

The parties to the Convention pledged to adopt not only necessary

legislative measures, as the case had been here-to fore, but also

administrative measures and to ensure fulfillment of the Convention's

decisions. They took upon themselves to limit the production, exportation,

importation, distribution, use, storage, and trade in narcotics and limit

their use and storage for medical purposes exclusively in order to diminish

sufferings and pain.

Instead of the previous four international agencies, which controlled

narcotics, the Convention authorized the formation of just two: the

Commission on Drugs under the UN Economic and Social Council and the newly

formed International Committee on Drug Control of the United Nations

Organization.

The Convention endowed these two bodies with broad authority.

The Commission on Drugs of the UN ECOSOC:

The Commission examines all issues that bear relation to the aims

proclaimed by the Uniform Convention. Every year it approves and amends the

List of substances, plants and preparations, the use, dissemination,

cultivation and storage of which is under international control. It

introduces corresponding changes and additions to the List and informs the

national governments. The Commission also informs the Committee of any

circumstances that may bear upon execution of its functions. Finally, it

issues recommendations concerning the implementation of the Convention's

aims and decisions, including the program of research and the exchange of

scientific and technical information.

For example, one of the recommendations calls for the need to provide

countries where the illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants is practiced

with an access to modern reconnaissance technology which makes it possible

to discover and then destroy such fields. This recommendation also calls

for the need to promote the economies of these countries so that their

farmers could earn a living by working at legal agricultural and other

enterprises; to combine steps against the illegal production and spread of

narcotics with the efforts to build a more just international order, give

help to third world countries in boosting their economies, developing their

traditional export industries and agriculture, and train specialists; to

regard programs for preventing drug addiction and curing drug addicts as

top priorities.28

Member countries may also be asked to submit their own recommendations.

These may include annual reports about the Convention's implementation on

their respective territories, texts of laws and rules passed with the aim

of implementing the Convention's provisions; names and addresses of

government agencies authorized to give permits for the exportation or

certificates for the importation of narcotics; or any other reports about

cases of illegal trafficking.

The UN Committee on Drug Control:

In accordance with the requirements of the 1961 Uniform Convention

(with amendments) the Committee consists of 13 members elected for the term

of 5 years. 3 members with medical, pharmaceutical and pharmacological

experience from the list of persons submitted by the WHO and 10 members-

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