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Measures that various governments tried to employ within their countries in the hope to "curb" drug addiction, so to speak, and ban, say, in Turkey or China, the non-medicinal use of drugs, failed to bring any positive results.
On top of that, programs against drug addiction required additional financial resources for treatment and social rehabilitation of addicts, medical personnel, curative medicines, and preventive measures by law enforcement agencies. Many countries lacked such financial resources. So, actions against drug abuse began crossing national boundaries. The awareness of a possible proliferation of drugs raised concern of the world public opinion and governments of many countries began pressing for the intensification of the rule of law on the international scene.
Consequently, an objective need arose to work out and put into practice joint inter-governmental agreements, adopt effective legal norms that would regulate international cooperation, enable countries to employ coordinated measures against drugs as a whole and its specific manifestations and to establish, as a result, both a domestic and international control over the use of narcotics and their consumption.
The first experiment of international control over narcotics and of measures against drug addiction at the international level dates back to the Shanghai Opium Commission held between February 5th and 26th 1909 in the city of Shanghai.
Shanghai Opium Commission of 1909:
This commission consisted of the representatives from 13 countries: Russia, the USA, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Britain, France, China, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal and Siam.
The commission attempted to work out measures that would block the illegal flow of drugs from the regions of Asia to European countries and the United States. It also discussed questions related to opium smoking and to international trade in opium derivatives.
In the long run, however, no constructive measures were produced. Documents issued by the commission contained no specific bans even on opium smoking. Members of the commission thought it was sufficient to only speak about its regulation and gradual restriction.
Nevertheless, the work of the Shanghai opium commission of 1909 played a significant role. Officially it marked the beginning of actions against drug addiction at the international level and to the launching of a system of international control over the spread of drugs. It also mapped out directions for the future international legislation in resolving problems reviewed in Shanghai.
A further advancement in combating drugs was made in the Hague at the International Opium Conference held from December 1st 1911 to January 23d 1912. Representatives of 12 countries took part in it (the same as in Shanghai excluding Austria-Hungary). The conference prepared and adopted the first convention on drugs (known as the Hague Convention). As a follow up to the Shanghai Commission, in terms of ideas, the conference proclaimed the timeliness of actions against narcotics as a whole and its specific trends.
The Hague Convention of 1912:
The Hague convention of 1912 was the first to define the specific types of drugs, which were put under international control. They were raw opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine and a few others. The contracting parties took pledges of both domestic and international nature upon themselves to adopt national laws establishing control over the production and distribution of raw opium, and at barring its illegal imports and exports without permits granted by specially authorized persons; to take steps towards gradually halting the production, domestic trade and use of smoke opium and introducing a ban on its imports and exports; to use narcotic substances (medicinal opium, morphine and cocaine) only for medicinal and "other reasonable purposes"; to ensure a legal regulation of the production of morphine, cocaine, medicinal opium, heroin and their derivatives and also of trade in these narcotic substances; to adopt appropriate laws (if they are not adopted yet) or change existing laws concerning the responsibility and punishment of persons guilty of acts involving the illegal possession of drugs.
The provision concerning the legal regulation of the production of morphine and its derivatives and trade in them (cocaine, medicinal opium and heroin) was an important step. It was an attempt to use preventive measures such as foreseeing the establishment of international control over narcotic substances, which could appear in the future without their prior concrete mentioning in the Convention's text.
Реферат опубликован: 14/12/2009