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-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.