Drug Abuse Control and International Treaties

Abstract

The author discusses major problems relating to international efforts to control non-medical use of narcotics and psychotropic substances and the international treaties that have been concluded to help control such use. He makes recommendations designed to improve international control efforts and strongly supports the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. He especially urges the United States and other Western nations which are manufacturers of such substances to ratify the treaty. He advises the United States that it cannot realistically expect other countries to agree to measures for reducing the illicit production of opium, if it is unwilling to support the Psychotropic Convention and the international controls on psychotropic substances called for by the Convention.