SINGLE CONVENTION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is the most comprehensive international drug control agreement ever signed. It regulates the production, trade, and use of Narcotic drugs, Cocaine, and cannabis (Marijuana).

BACKGROUND

Thirteen countries signed the first international drug control treaty in 1912 at The Hague, Netherlands. Into the 1950s, governments entered into eight multilateral treaties aimed at preventing the illicit trade and consumption of opium and other drugs. Over forty years, many of the provisions had become obsolete, had never been implemented, or required revision as world developments presented new challenges. The Single Convention consolidated the existing multilateral drug-control treaties into one agreement. Its drafters also intended to encourage governments that had not participated in earlier drug-control agreements to join the international effort. As of November 1993, 144 governments were party to the Single Convention.

PROVISIONS OF THE SINGLE CONVENTION

The Single Convention contains eight major provisions for the control of the production, trade, and use of drugs. All parties must establish or adjust national legislation to conform to these requirements of the convention.

Parties must require licenses for manufacturers, wholesalers, and other handlers of narcotic drugs, and they must maintain a system of permits, record keeping, reports, controls, and inspections to prevent diversion of drugs to the illicit traffic. A country that allows the domestic production of the Opium poppy, the Coca bush, or the Cannabis plant must establish a control agency to designate areas for the cultivation of these drugs and limit production to licensed growers.

Parties to the convention must prepare estimates (quotas) detailing the amount of drugs necessary to satisfy national medical and scientific needs, and they must provide these figures annually to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). Governments must also provide the INCB with quarterly and annual statistics on drug production, trade, and consumption. In addition, the Single Convention requires that parties maintain a system of import and export authorizations as well as import certificates so that the INCB and governments can monitor the flow of narcotics in and out of countries.

The Single Convention extends the control system over the opium poppy to the coca bush and the cannabis plant. Governments must uproot and destroy wild and illegally cultivated coca bushes and cannabis plants. Parties are furthermore required to ban opium smoking and eating, coca-leaf chewing, and cannabis smoking and ingestion. A transition period is provided to overcome any difficulties that might arise for those who use such plants or drugs in ancient rituals. Countries may reserve the right to permit the quasi-medical use of opium and coca leaves as well as the nonmedical use of cannabis.

The Single Convention encourages parties to provide assistance and treatment to drug addicts. This provision distinguishes the agreement from previous international drug-control treaties, which focused exclusively on curbing the illicit flow of drugs.

INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS CONTROL BOARD AND COMMISSION ON NARCOTIC DRUGS

Signatories to the Single Convention recognized the need for an international central monitoring and enforcement agency to oversee the production and trade of drugs. The Single Convention merged the Permanent Central Opium Board and the Drug Supervisory Board into the INCB, which serves as this central authority. The United Nations Economic and Social Council elects thirteen members to serve on the INCB.

The main responsibilities of the INCBs include limiting the cultivation, production, manufacture, and use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances to the amounts necessary for medical and scientific purposes, ensuring the availability of these drugs for medical purposes such as pain control. The INCB reviews estimates of opium and other drug-production figures provided by each party. These figures are formalized into production and consumption quotas. The board also analyzes information from participating countries, the United Nations, and other international organizations to ensure that there is compliance with the terms of the Single Convention. Where appropriate, it recommends that technical and financial assistance be given to those countries that may need further help. The Single Convention also provides the INCB with some direct enforcement powers, such as recommending an embargo of drug shipments to a country that is a center of drug trafficking. The INCB is more effective, however, in encouraging government to comply through confidential diplomatic initiatives than through the imposition of sanctions.

The Single Convention strengthens the role of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND). The CND, which is composed of fifty governments, is the UN body that is the key information and policymaker in the drug-control area. The CND adds and deletes substances to or from the four control schedules of the convention, notifies the INCB of drug-control concerns, recommends ways to curb the illicit traffic of narcotics, and notifies nonparticipants of the actions that have been taken. It also gathers the names of the authorities that issue licenses for import and export.

DRUG SCHEDULES

In the preamble to the Single Convention, the parties recognized that "the medical use of narcotic drugs continues to be indispensable for the relief of pain and suffering and that an adequate provision must be made to ensure the availability of narcotic drugs for such purposes." In an effort to make narcotic drugs available for legitimate medical use while also curtailing drug abuse, the parties placed narcotic drugs into four schedules. Classification of a narcotic drug and the type of regulation that would be imposed on that drug substance would depend on a drug's potential for abuse as well as its medical benefit.

Schedule I is reserved for medically useful drugs exhibiting the highest potential for abuse. Examples of schedule I drugs include Opium, Morphine, and Methadone.

Schedule II substances possess a liability for abuse that is no greater than that of Codeine. These drugs are placed under similar controls as schedule I substances except that parties need not require prescriptions for domestic supply. Medical practitioners are not required to keep records tracking the acquisition and disposal by individuals of a controlled substance placed in schedule II. Codeine is the most commonly prescribed schedule II drug.

Drugs in schedule III are the ones intended for medical use that, as prepared, pose a negligible or nonexistent risk of abuse and a low public health risk. Schedule III drugs face substantially fewer controls than those listed in schedules I and II. Preparations of codeine and the analgesic dextropropoxyphene are two examples of drugs listed in schedule III.

To place a drug in schedules II and III governments must control the factories where these drugs are manufactured as well as the individuals involved in their manufacture, trade, distribution, and import or export. Records of the manufacture and sale of these drugs must be maintained, and limits must be imposed to ensure that they are used exclusively for medical and scientific purposes.

The special class of drugs in schedule IV exhibit strong addiction-producing properties or a high liability of abuse that cannot be offset by medical benefits or that poses too great a risk to public health to hazard using them commonly in medical practice. Drugs in this category remain subject to the same international controls that are applicable to schedule I drugs, but governments are encouraged to limit their legitimate use. Cannabis, cannabis resin, and heroin (diamorphine) are examples of schedule IV drugs. Several medical experts have questioned the appropriateness of limiting the use of diamorphine for pain control and a number of governments permit this use.

Note that these schedules or levels of control differ from those contained in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) of the United States. For example, in this act, drugs with a high liability for abuse and no accepted medical uses are included in Schedule I. The CSA also covers all categories of drugs including sedatives, Hallucinogens, and cocaine besides other stimulants, whereas the Single Convention covers only opioid drugs, cocaine, and cannabis (marijuana). Other psychoactive drugs with abuse potential are controlled under a different international treaty, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is responsible for making recommendations regarding the scheduling of drugs. In evaluating the schedule of a drug, WHO considers the "degree of liability to abuse" of a substance and the "risk to public health and social welfare" that the substance in question poses or might pose. The Convention grants WHO broad discretion in interpreting these two criteria. Ultimately, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs decides, by majority vote, whether to alter or amend a schedule, thereby reserving the right to reject WHO's recommendation.

THE 1972 PROTOCOL

The 1972 Protocol Amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs confers greater powers on the International Narcotics Control Board and emphasizes the prevention of drug abuse, the distribution of drug information and education, and the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts. It also stresses the need to balance legitimate production of narcotics for medical and scientific purposes with prevention of illicit production, manufacture, traffic, and use of these substances.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SINGLE CONVENTION

The Single Convention has proved important in four ways. First, the aims, goals, and strategy in regard to combatting illicit drug trafficking became more focused and modernized because of its adoption. Second, the large number of participants in the Convention encourages more countries to take part in the international cooperative effort against drug abuse. Third, the placement of drugs into schedules constitutes a recognition of the differences between drug substances, and it balances the potential for abuse of the drugs with their medical benefit. The Single Convention, which openly supports the medical use of narcotics to relieve pain and suffering, states that these drugs are "indispensable" for the purpose. Narcotics with a higher potential for abuse and with a lower medical value fall subject to tighter regulation than drugs with a lower potential for abuse and a greater medical value. Fourth, the international community appreciates the need to combine strict controls of illicit drug trafficking with the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts. This approach, fusing strength with compassion, is now an integral part of the effort to curb the illicit production, trade, and consumption of narcotic drugs.

(See also: International Drug Supply Systems ; Opioids and Opioid Control: History ; Psychotropic Substances Convention of 1971 ; Shanghai Opium Conference ; World Health Organization Expert Committee on Drug Dependence )

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Robert T. Angarola