International controls opium

The next major convention on opium occurred in 1911 in the Netherlands. A declaration was made at the 1911 convention which advocated all nations to institute domestic opium laws. However, agreements made at the convention were meaningless because individual nations ultimately ignored the statutes. Time and time again, international efforts to control opium consumption were curbed by vested interests. The opium trade was critical to many countries economies, and the tax revenues were too substantial for many governments to want to effect any change. 

While there were still many disputes between individual nations over the terms of opium production and distribution, international action finally proved effective, achieving an 80 percent reduction in worldwide opium production, from 42,000 tons in 1906 to 16,000 tons by 1934. Over the next several decades, international oversight continued, at times lulling (particularly during World War II), but at other times booming, especially after the creation of the United Nations following World War II. However, total control over opium has never been achieved, and illegal opium trade continues to this day. One reason it is so difficult to control opium production is that its cultivation is necessary to supply the lawful pharmaceutical industry. 

In 1914, there was an international outcry for the control of drug trafficking. A series of conventions on drug control (including the Shanghai Conference in 1909 and a conference at The Hague in 1911) led to the official agreement on the international control of opium in 1912. The U.S. Senate was finally ready to enact a domestic law to meet the newly formed international standards. 

The first in a series of conventions on the international control of opium traffic is held at The Hague, Netherlands. 

In relation to their chemical structure and action, they can be classified into two categories. The first are phenanthrene alkaloids and are under international control morphine (MO), codeine (COD), and thebaine (TB), which act on the central nervous system and are used as analgesics, narcotics, and potentially addicting compounds (pain relievers). Heroin is synthesized from MO. The second group is isoquinoline alkaloids Papaverine (PV) and narcotine (also known as noscapine). Narcotine acts only to relax involuntary smooth muscles, for which it is considered an antitussive, and lacks addictive, analgesic, respiratory, narcotic, depressant, and sedative properties. Next to MO, which constitute about 10% by weight of raw opium, is the second most abundant alkaloid present in opium. The three last alkaloids (PV, narcotine, and narceine) are not under international control specially, narcotine and narceine which have scarcely any medical or other uses. Consequently, the five economically significant alkaloids of opium are MO, COD, TB, PV, and narcotine. 

The Opiates. The International Narcotics Control Board—Vienna, tracks the tick production of narcotic dmgs and annually estimates world requkements for the United Nations. Thek most recent pubHcation (100) points out that more than 95% of the opium for Hcit medical and scientific purposes is produced by India and, in a declining trend, only about 600 t was utilized in 1988. This trend appears to be due to the fact that the United States, the largest user of opium for alkaloid extraction, reduced the amount of opium being imported from about 440 t in 1986 to 249 t in 1987 and 224 t in 1988. The United States used about 48 t of morphine (2, R = H) in 1988, most (about 90%) being converted to codeine (2, R = CH3) and the remainder being used for oral adrninistration to the terminally ill (about 2 t) and for conversion to other materials of minor commercial import which, while clearly alkaloid-derived, are not naturally occurring. 

Beginning in the early twentieth century, more and more people realized the dangerous nature of opium and its derivatives, and a worldwide effort was established to try to control the growing and selling of opium. The first attempt came in 1909 when the International Opium Commission convened for the first time. The commission was the first international congress on opium and its alkaloids. While only 13 nations attended and the actual results were minor, the meeting was significant because it put opium on the map as a worldwide problem. 

Opium has been known and used for 4000 years or more. In recent times, attempts have been made at governmental and international levels to control the cultivation of the opium poppy, but with only limited success. In endeavours to reduce drug problems involving opium-derived materials, especially heroin, where extremely large profits can be made from smuggling relatively small amounts of opium, much pharmaceutical production has been replaced by the processing of the bulkier poppy straw . The entire plant tops are harvested and dried, then extracted for their alkaloid content in the pharmaceutical industry. Poppy straw now accounts for most of the medicinal opium alkaloid production, but there is still... 

United Nations International Drag Control Program (1998) Recommended methods for testing opium, morphine, and heroin, manual Iot use by national drag testing laboratories. 

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