Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

from the list of persons submitted by countries belonging to the UN.

Persons recommended as members of the Committee have to meet special

requirements such as competence, non-involvement, impartiality,

trustworthiness and must have an awareness of the situation in the

countries where narcotics are produced, made and consumed.

The Committee performs important functions, which actually form the

essence of the system of international control over the legal use of

narcotics. They are:

- using the system of estimation of the countries' demand for drugs.

The countries concerned are obliged to submit the following annual

estimations written in special forms to the Committee: the quantity of

drugs used for medical and scientific purpose and for the preparation of

other narcotics, medicines and substances not covered by the given

Convention; the quantity of stored available narcotics as of December 31st

of the reported year; the size and the geographical position of the field

used for cultivating opium poppy and the approximate quantity of opium

expected to be obtained from it, and the number of enterprises producing

synthetic drugs and the quantity of such drugs produced at each enterprise;

- estimating the overall level of drugs produced and imported by any

country or territory throughout one year (quantity of drugs imported which

is above the reported figures cannot be permitted without a sanction from

the Committee);

- introducing a regulated order for endorsing the demand for drugs used

for medical purposes. To ensure a balance between the demand and supply of

opiates used in medicine, the Committee sends information with estimates of

the demand for these preparations to the country producing these drugs. The

country is to agree with these estimates and then decrease (or increase)

their production.

- using the system of statistical reports. The governments submit

statistical reports to the Committee about the production and preparation

of specific drugs, their use and consumption, their exportation and

importation, their detention, their stocks and fields used to cultivate

opium poppy and other data which allows the Committee to determine if

countries are abiding by the Convention's decisions and then take

appropriate measures to ensure their implementation and the accomplishment

of the control functions.

The Committee collects and analyzes information submitted to it by the

United Nations agencies, individual governments and international

organizations, including Interpol. This information features the

production, manufacture, modification, and consumption of drugs, as well as

international trade in them, supply and confiscation of drugs. The

Committee also points to the shortcomings in the arrangement of control

functions and offers recommendations as to how these shortcomings can be

dealt with. If need be, the Committee has the right to invite

representatives of any country to its meetings.

Upon getting the information that the target set by the Convention is

endangered in any country due to its failure to abide by the Convention's

decisions, the Committee has the right to ask for an explanation and also

to recommend adjustment measures. If a particular government fails to

provide a satisfactory explanation or to accept the adjustment measures

proposed by the Committee, the problem can be brought to the attention of

the involved parties, of the Council or the Commission. The involved party

may be recommended to stop the importation or exportation of narcotics to

given countries or territories for a specific period of time until the

Committee recognizes that the situation in that country has become

satisfactory.

The Committee is endowed with the right to impose restrictions, under

certain conditions, on the manufacture and import of drugs.

Since a large volume of information is available at the Committee it is

able to prepare reports, publish them and forward them to the Council to be

sent to the parties concerned. In these reports the Committee can touch

upon any issues connected with drugs and inform its readers about newly

passed decisions. For example, in its report of 1989 (Vienna) the Committee

called on the governments of all countries to strictly observe the

Convention's provisions, to submit statistical accounts about the available

quantities of narcotics and trade in them, among other related data.

To avoid alternative versions and form a single understanding, the

Uniform Convention establishes identical definitions of special terminology

related to drugs.

Drug-related Terminology as Established by the Uniform Convention:

For example, according to the Convention a "narcotic substance" is any

of the substances included in List I and List II regardless of whether it

is synthetic or natural. Lists I, II, III, and IV are enumerations of

narcotics or drug-bearing preparations and are supplements to the

Convention in which possible changes may be made from time to time in

accordance with the procedures established by the Convention.

Definitions are also given for cannabis and its plant and resin,

cocaine shrub, coca leaves, opium, opium poppy and poppy straw.

Significantly, the international understanding of the word

"cultivation" pertaining to drugs covers only the cultivation of opium

poppy, cocaine brush or the cannabis plant. It should be mentioned at this

point that the 1988 UN Convention defines this term differently. But this

will be discussed below.

The term "illegal trafficking" means the cultivation of or any action

relating to the sale of narcotics in violation of the Convention's

decisions. The term "importation" and "exportation" mean the physical

shipment of narcotics crossing the boundaries of one country to another or

from one territory to another within one and the same country. The term

"territory" means any part of a country defined as a separate unit for the

purpose of applications of the system of drug importation certificates and

drug exportation permits to it.

The term "manufacture" implies (with the exception of production) all

the processes that pertain to obtaining narcotic substances, including

refining or turning one narcotic into another.

The term "production" means the separation of opium, coca, cannabis

leaves and cannabis resin from the plants, which they are obtained from.

The term "preparation" means a hard or liquid mixture containing a

narcotic substance.

The term "storage stocks" is used in relation to the amount of

narcotics which are available in a particular country or on its territory

and meant to be used for medical or scientific purposes, for exportation or

for the needs of various pharmacists, authorized traders and specialists or

institutions where medical or scientific research is carried out.

Included in this term is also the notion "special storage stocks" which

is used to describe the amount of narcotics available within a country or a

territory of that country and put at the disposal of its government to be

used for special purposes or in case of an emergency.

The Uniform Convention introduces a number of specific restrictions and

bans and a special procedure for the cultivation of drug-bearing plants.

The most important restrictions are those concerning the cultivation of

opium poppy, cocaine shrub or cannabis plant.

Special provisions are envisaged in the first place in relation to

opium. Government-run institutions (one or several) should be set up to

deal with the cultivation of opium poppy and with opium production. They

should have the right to determine areas and sizes of fields, and issue

licenses and permits for land plots where a certain amount of opium poppy

can be grown and a certain amount of opium-produced. These government-run

institutions should be endowed with the exclusive right to buy opium poppy

crops from farmers and to import, export, conclude wholesale trade deals

and maintain storage opium stocks (with the exception of medicinal opium

and preparations from it.)

The responsibilities of persons are outlined who have permits

(licenses) to grow drug-bearing plants, to turn over crops of opium poppy

only to the institution which they had received their permits from. Any

departures from the established procedures are qualified as violations of

the law. The Convention permits narcotics to be made only at government-run

enterprises or in accordance with licenses issued to persons with necessary

qualifications.

The Convention introduces uniform rules for storing narcotics to ensure

that the substances are maintained in proper condition. It envisages the

responsibility of member-states for taking precautionary measures to

prevent the inappropriate use of narcotics or the possibility for them to

become part of illegal trafficking in cases when, for example, they are

kept in airliners' first aid compartments.

Narcotics can be stored only legally. Their producers are not allowed

to keep them in quantity exceeding the established norms. A compulsory

registration system is established under which the quantity of each

prepared, acquired or used drug should be recorded. Drugs can be stored for

no more than 2 years.

The signatories of the Convention are obliged to take specially

stipulated measures to combat illegal drug trafficking. The Convention

therefore grants the contracting parties the right to control the work of

persons and enterprises engaged, on a legal basis, in the cultivation,

manufacture, storage and use of narcotics and of those engaged in the

drugs' exportation, importation, distribution and trade.

The participating countries, besides, have the following duties: to

take steps at home towards coordinating preventive and repressive measures

against illegal drug trafficking; to help each other in carrying out

campaigns against illegal drug trafficking; to closely cooperate with

competent international bodies in carrying out coordinated actions for the

purpose of combating narcotics and also to ensure an effective

international cooperation and a quick transfer of legal documents for

launching prosecution.

Punishability of Drug-related crimes:

The Uniform Convention institutes the punishment for drug-related

crimes and obliges member-countries to take specific actions when crimes

that are recognized as punishable by the Convention are committed

intentionally. Serious crimes should be punished by imprisonment or some

other form of deprivation of freedom. Intentional crimes which are

punishable include: the cultivation and production, manufacture,

extraction, preparation, storage, offer, offer with commercial intentions,

distribution, purchase, sale, delivery on any conditions, drug-pushing,

dispatch, transit re-dispatch, shipping, and importation and exportation of

narcotics. Each of these crimes, if committed in more than one country,

must be considered as a separate crime. Intentional complicity in any of

these crimes, participation in a community with the aim to commit or

attempt to commit a crime, preparatory actions or financial operations

related to the above cited crimes must also be recognized as punishable

actions. Sentences passed by foreign courts for such crimes must be taken

into account when considering recidivism.

The Convention recommends that any extradition treaty should make these

crimes subject to extradition.

Yet while instituting punishment for a long list of drug-related crimes

the Uniform Convention also includes a special decision on treating drug

addicts. It calls on the member-states to create conditions conducive to

providing them with rehabilitation and restoring their ability to work. If

economic opportunities are available in the country, appropriate conditions

should be created providing preventive treatment to drug addicts.

The UN Convention of 1988:

The 1988 Convention regulates questions relating to the illegal

trafficking of drugs and psycho tropes. The aim of this Convention is to

promote cooperation between the contracting parties so as to more

effectively solve various problems involving worldwide illegal drug

trafficking, curtail its size and prevent its grave consequences. The

Convention particularly emphasizes the danger of the proliferation of

illegal drug trafficking and the involvement of children in it. It points

to the need to ensure control of easily accessible substances and those,

which are used to make narcotics illegally.

Special attention is paid to the need to improve international

cooperation to block illegal drug trafficking at sea. The Convention

envisages steps to prevent a certain number of offenses.

The contracting parties are expected to adopt necessary legislative and

organizational steps. The following provisions seem to be the most

interesting.

The Notion of Illegal Drug Trafficking:

Firstly, there is a provision, bearing the form of a recommendation,

for member states that national legislation should recognize certain

premeditated actions included by the Convention into the notion of "illegal

trafficking" as common crimes. Actions that violate the 1961 Convention

(with amendments) include: production, manufacture, preparation, offer for

sale, distribution, sale, delivery on any terms, middleman services,

shipping, transit shipping, transportation, and importation or exportation

of any narcotic. Other actions which should be recognized as crimes are the

cultivation of specially indicated narcotic-bearing plants in order to turn

out drugs; storing or purchasing any narcotic for illegal trafficking;

making, transporting or distributing equipment, materials or substances for

the purpose of illegal cultivation, production or manufacture of narcotics;

organization, guidance or financing of any offenses listed above;

conversion or transfer of property obtained from the above mentioned

offenses in order to conceal or cover up an illegal source of property or

in order to help a person who is taking part in committing the listed

offenses to evade responsibility for his actions; concealment or secrecy of

the true nature of the source, whereabouts, arrangement method, transfer of

the rights in relation to property or its belonging if it is known that

this property is gained as a result of the listed offenses; possession of

equipment or materials needed to illegally cultivate, produce or make any

narcotic; public encouragement or incitement of other persons by any means

to commit any of the above-mentioned offenses; participation or involvement

in a criminal collusion in order to commit the mentioned offenses, as well

as accomplice, incitement, assistance or advice during their commission;

and intentional storage, acquisition or cultivation of any narcotic for

personal use in defiance of the provisions of the 1961 Convention (with

amendments).

Secondly, there is a provision concerning matters of responsibility and

punishment of people convicted of dangerous drug-related crimes. This

provision recommends such sanctions as imprisonment or the deprivation of

freedom, as well as additional measures in the form of rehabilitation,

restoration of the ability to work, or social reintegration with subsequent

supervision.

Controlled Deliveries:

Thirdly, there is a provision about the use of controlled deliveries at

the international level based on mutual accords. Controlled delivery is a

method under which exportation, transportation or importation of illegal or

suspicious batches of drugs are allowed on the territory of one or several

countries with the knowledge and under the supervision of competent

agencies in order to identify the participants in these offenses.

Most norms covered by international conventions are part of the laws of

the Russian Federation, and more of these norms may be registered in the

future provided there are suitable conditions.

Measures to Prevent Drug Money Laundering:

There are two documents, which have been mentioned earlier that are

very important in controlling drug abuse because they affect the "sore

points" of narco-business. Both of these documents need to be applied in

the Russian Federation. One, from 12th December 1988, is a statement by the

Committee on Banking Rules and Banking Supervision. Its aim is to prevent

the criminal use of the banking system for laundering money gained from the

trade in drugs. The other is the decision by the heads of state and

government of the 7 leading industrial countries and by the European

Commission Chairman. Under this decision taken at the 15th Economic Summit

in Paris in July 1989, a Special Operations Group on financial issues was

set up.

It must also be noted that the past few years have seen the convocation

of numerous official and unofficial conferences, symposia and meetings of

experts specializing in combating drug abuse, including one held in 1996 in

Baku. They all worked out and recommended for implementation various

measures to control narcotics.

Par. 2. Tendencies in the World Community's Reaction to Drug Abuse.

The world community counteracts the negative tendencies of drug abuse.

This can be clearly seen in the materials of the world fora and in the

international legal acts.

The Overriding Tendency of Combating Drug Abuse:

The overriding tendency is the expanding scale, and improvement of

activities, as well as of the international legal regulations combating

drug abuse. The core of this tendency is expressed in the following

trajectory from the study of drug abuse, and exerting influence by the

world community through establishing international control over legitimate

distribution and consumption of drugs, to the adoption and implementation

of the increasingly diversified, detailed, rationalized and tough measures

combating illegal drug trafficking and criminal drug money laundering.

These measures are being worked out by international agencies and

organizations and are aimed at fully blocking the spread of narcotics.

This overall tendency can be seen in several of its more concrete

manifestations, such as bringing the problem of narcotics to the forefront;

expanding the sphere of the international legal regulation by amending

existing measures and approving new international legal norms; making

actions against drug abuse more purposeful by revealing its most vulnerable

spots and controlling them by using new, more perfected international legal

norms; ensuring a more universal, unified and standardized understanding of

international legal terms regulating narcotics and; adopting international

legal norms that pave the way for a real opportunity to combat narcotics;

bringing international and national legal acts in line concerning actions

against narcotics in the process of nations joining international legal

acts and ratifying them; increasing the number of countries taking part in

international conferences on actions against narcotics and the number of

countries joining international legal acts and setting up and expanding the

functions of specialized international agencies that work to combat

narcotics.

Bringing to the Foreground Problems of Combating Drug Abuse:

Nearly 80 years since the convocation of the Shanghai Opium Commission

in 1909, the first official body on the international scene that had drawn

attention to the problems of narcotics, its regulation and gradual

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