THE MENACE OF NARCOTIC DRUGS

White Ribbon, Volume 28, Issue 5, 1 September 1956, Page 7

THE MENACE OF NARCOTIC DRUGS

Ten years have passed lince the beginning oi International drug control under the iponsorship of United Nations Priof to I ( *V>. agreements, eon ventions, and protocols had been concluded at The Hague, 1921, Geneva 1925 and 1931, Bangkok 1931, and Geneva, 1936 The Protocol of 1946 amended thete agreements, conventions, and , u The Protocol of 1948 brought under international control, drug! outside the scope ol the Convention of 1931 foi lb ''it- manufacture and regulating the distribution oi nan-"! mended by the Protocol of i • The 1948 Protocol is particular!) important as all countries which are parties to it are to inform the Secretary-General oi UNO of any synthetic drug that the) :onsider capable of abuse and of producing harmful effect! If W.H.O decides that the drug ii addiction-forming, all parties must inbject it to the appropriate control The Protocol of 1953 will reduce the annual world production of opium from 2,000 to ; <*> tuns. the quantity estimated foi medical and scientific Is of the world, and will come into U rce when u is ratified by 2 ; countries, including three that manufacture drug! \s tar as New Zealand is cOfl cerned, the Protocol is lb) existing l< lation, but, nevertheless, the question of earl) ratification by this country is under active con sideration owing to it-< international importance At present eleven ratification! are still required, including two from producing counti The next great step iu the international control of narcotics, the Single ( lion, will revise, improve, and codify tin nine existing international treaties into one document ii already being planned by study and discussion, but many problems have to l»c solved beforehand, including the control of i» <»i»i»>' itrnw, coca leaves, cannibis, and cannibis resin, and specific rules for lynthetic narcotics Cannibis i! better known as marihuana Meantime, several rmv;s oi traffickers have been broken nj> m the past tin years, and several countries have made genuine efforts to suppress the traffic Burma has nol found n easy t«> item the th»w and use of opium, much ol which is smuggled in by land from China Mexico has also worked foe suppression of opium, Clandestine factories manufacturing crude cocaine have be come serious problems in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, but Peru has made a number of leisures of cocaine A number of countries, our own included, have discontinued the use of heroin for medical purposes. The Commission on Narcotic Orudis has urged all governments which have not already done so to prohibit the manufacture, import, 01 port, and use of heroin The Commission cited

four countries whose narcotic Control is particularly troublesome, namely, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, and Thailand Each of these countries has made efforts to suppress traffic, but their effort I musi be intensified In many cases the maintenance oi addiction is expensive that most addicts cannot keep them selves supplied with drug! without resorting to crime, and appalling crimes have been committed by addicts Of the known British addicts over hall are women, and more than a quarter ol the total are doctors From information recently received, it appears there arc (i<) known addicts in New A a land These are given ever; opportunity to enter institutions for treatment. In I'S \, four-fifths of the addicts are men. and approximately half of all addicts are between the age! of 21 and 30 vears, and about IJ per cent, under 21 years In recent years, the abuse of synthetic narCOtk dmgS has become a serious problem in various Countries, but this can be dealt with in a future article —V. Grigg.