Narcotics, controlling

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. 

International Narcotics Control Board—Vienna, Narcotic Drugs, Estimated World Requirementsfor 1990, Statistics for 1988, United Nations Publ. E/F/S.89.XI.3, New York, 1989, pp. 33ff... 

Mitchell JE, Motley JE, Levine AS, et al High dose naltrexone therapy and dietary counseling for obesity. Biol Psychiatry 22 35 2, 1987 Musto DF The American Disease Origins of Narcotic Control, Expanded Edition. New York, Oxford University Press, 1987... 

Musto DF (1973). The American Disease Origins of Narcotic Control. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. 

Reducing problematic behavior to biological causes calls for pharmaceutical solutions and here too powerful corporate interests foster such explanations. The redefinition of hyperactivity as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), for example, has significantly benefitted the pharmaceutical industry. The use of Ritalin as a treatment for ADD has doubled since 1995, and it is prescribed to over 4 million children in the US. Production of the drug is up 700 % since 1990, and 90 % of the production is consumed in the US where pharmaco-genomics is a burgeoning field. Europeans have been more cautious, and the International Narcotics Control Board of the UN has expressed concern about the growing tendency to redefine behavior as amenable to pharmaceutical modification. 

According to the 2004 statistics on narcotic drugs by the International Narcotic Control Board the main producers of legal morphine are Australia (123 t) Turkey (56.6 t) and France (56.1 t). Producers of medicinal codeine are UK (71 t), USA (64 t), France (411) and Australia (311). 

Cultivation of the plant in India began in the fifteenth century C.E. It was probably originally cultivated in Europe, but it is now grown in an area between Turkey and Southeast Asia. Poppies are grown commercially for pharmaceutical use, which is controlled by the International Narcotics Control Board of the United Nations. 

The international community looks with interest at what results have been achieved and what further action is needed after nearly two decades of precursor control. Within its mandate under article 12 of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988, the International Narcotics Control Board has a unique position and responsibility to provide some answers to those questions. 

Precursors and Chemicals Frequently Used in the Illicit Manufacture of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2003. .., para. 19. 

Seizures of substances in Table I of the 1988 Convention, as reported to the International Narcotics Control Board... 

Knowledge of the most common licit uses of substances in Tables I and II of the 1988 Convention, including the processes and end products in which the substances may be used, is essential to the verification of the legitimacy of orders or shipments. The most common licit uses of those substances reported to the International Narcotics Control Board are as follows ... 

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is an independent and quasi-judicial control organ, established by treaty, for monitoring the implementation of the international drug control treaties. It had predecessors under the former drug control treaties as far back as the time of the League of Nations. 

Reports published by the International Narcotics Control Board in 2004... 

International Narcotics Control Board for 2004 on the Implementation of Article 12 of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988... 

INCSR United States of America, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report... 

Government reports, HONLEA reports, UNODC Field Offices, Drug Abuse Information Network for Asia and the Pacific (DAINAP), ICPO/Interpol, World Customs Organisation (WCO), CICAD, EMCDDA, United States Department of State, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, etc. 

Zhao Wanpeng, Deputy Director of International Cooperation Division, Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Public Security, Measures Implemented in China for the Prevention of Illicit Production of Synthetic Drugs and their Precursors, presentation given to the conference Europe-Asia - Cooperation on Synthetic Drugs and their Precursors, 6-7 March 2007. 

Source UNODC Annual Reports Questionnaires data, National Household Surveys submitted to UNODC, United States Department of State (Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs) International Narcotics Control Strategy Report law enforcement reports, reports from epidemiological networks, UNODC Global Assessment Programme on Drug Abuse (GAP)... 

Sources US State Dept., 2007 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report and UNODC, Annual Reports Questionnaire Data. 

No official Mexican cannabis production estimates exist. The first estimate is based on INCSR cultivation estimates and a yield figure of 800 kg/ha, provided to UNODC by the Mexican authorities the second figure reflects the US INCSR estimate for cannabis production in the year 2005- (US State Department, International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, March 2007). 

The strong decline of ATS precursor seizures in 2005 is linked to successes in precursor control, which works by preventing the diversion of chemicals into illicit manufacture. If suspicious precursor shipments are actually suspended or stopped, the amount of seizures will obviously go down. For instance, as a part of project PRISM (Precursors Required In Synthetic drug Manufacture), a task force involving several countries and international organizations, the International Narcotics Control... 

Precursor seizure data, unless cited otherwise, have been taken from International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), 2006Precursors and chemicals frequently used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, New York 2007 (and previous years) hereafter cited as INCB, 2006 Precursors. 

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