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 restriction, public attention to the problem has been steadily growing in proportion to the rise in the degree of public danger and the spread of narcotics. This is manifested by the increasing number of conferences, meetings, and symposia that concentrate on working out and adopting various international legal acts regulating measures to combat narcotics along with producing recommendations aimed at improving these types of measures and their application.
Expanding the Sphere of International Legal Regulation:
Expanding the sphere of international legal regulation means that each successive forum and each new international legal act against narcotics has focused on such areas of drug abuse, which have not been previously subject of international regulation.
In particular, the 1912 Hague Convention was the first to define types of narcotics - raw opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine and some others, which were placed under international control. Later this list was expanded. Under the Convention of 19th February 1925, some additional raw materials such as coca leaves, raw cocaine and Indian hemp (cannabis) were included. Also any other drug capable of causing harmful affects, according to the finding of a competent body, could be added to the list. Under the Protocol of 19th November 1948 the list was further extended by synthetic drugs that had come into being by that time and had not been regulated by any of the previously adopted international legal acts. The 1961 Uniform Convention contained a much longer list of narcotics allowing for further subsequent changes and additions.
The 1912 Hague Convention obliged the participating countries to pass national legislation controlling the production, distribution, importation and exportation of raw opium as well as measures scaling down production, domestic trade and consumption of smoke opium, banning its import and export. The Agreement of 11th February 1925 envisaged setting up a government monopoly for opium production and monopoly associations for opium trade. The Geneva Convention of 19th February 1925 introduced new measures, such as exercising control over the activities of persons who held permits to manufacture, import, export, sell, distribute and apply narcotics, as well as control over the premises where these persons practiced their trade. The Convention also limited the number of ports, cities and other populated centers through which the import and export of drugs was allowed, and urged the adoption of domestic legislation qualifying violation of these provisions of the Convention as criminal offence. The Convention of 13th July 1931 formulated the following additional measures: extradition of criminals for committing drug-related crimes; setting up domestic government agencies to implement the Convention's decisions and regulations, supervision over the trade in drug-bearing medicines, listed in the Convention, and a clamp-down on illegal drug trafficking. The Bangkok agreement of 27th November 1931 contained such amendments as limiting retail opium trade to government agencies only. For persons under 21 years of age visiting opium dens, was a criminal offence. The Convention of 26th June 1936 was the first to introduce the word "struggle" and provided for a much wider range of criminal drug-related offenses. Under the Protocol of 19th November 1948, the signatories had to inform the UN about any substance that had the potential of being abused in the future.
The 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments) broadened international legal norms, over new aspects of drug abuse. For example, it established a special procedure for cultivating narcotic-bearing plants and manufacturing narcotic substances, it established uniform rules for storing drugs. These procedures bound the signatories to cooperate with each other and with authorized international organizations in arranging and holding campaigns against illegal drug trafficking, and in applying imprisonment and against those guilty of premeditated drug-related crimes.
The 1988 UN Convention contained recommendations to define concrete premeditated actions as crimes in national legislation. An extended list of these crimes was included into the concept "illegal drug trafficking." The Convention also listed such measures as medical treatment of addicts, restoration of their working capabilities or social re-integration under subsequent supervision. The Convention outlined recommendations on using controlled deliveries at the international level on the basis of mutual accords.
Purposeful Actions Against Drug Abuse:
Intensifying actions against drug abuse by revealing and attacking vulnerable spots of narco-business through the help of new, more perfect law as the world community increasing realized the danger of narcotics, it displayed a growing ability to apply new international legal norms. As a result the world community has been approving appropriate legal norms to check the spread of narcotics. For example, on the basis of the 1912 Hague Convention the signatories pledged to undertake measures to gradually stop the production, domestic trade, and consumption of smoke opium, as well as to ban its import and export. The 1988 Convention registered the provision on controlled drug deliveries at the international level on the basis of mutual accords. In accordance with the statement by the Committee for Banking Rules and Banking Supervision of 12th December 1988 and the decision of July 1989 by the heads of states and governments of the seven leading industrial nations and by the European Commission Chairman, measures were taken to prevent criminal use of the banking system for laundering money obtained from drug trade.