The UN Drug Conventions: Evidence on Effects and Impact

Abstract

The three international drug treaties cover many psychoactive substances (“drugs”), although not tobacco (now under a separate treaty) or alcohol. They include a penal regime to enforce the limitation of use to medical or scientific purposes, a trade regime concerning drugs for medical use, and a planning scheme to ensure adequate supplies of medical opiates. The system, initiated in 1912, had shifted its main focus by the 1988 treaty to combating the illicit markets which accompany a prohibitory system. The place of the drug treaties in the United Nations system and the bodies which compose the system are briefly characterized. Nearly every country has signed each treaty, though often with ..