Drug Abuse

Article 1

DEFINITIONS

Paragraph 1, introductory subparagraph and subparagraph (a)

1. Except where otherwise expressly indicated or where the context otherwise requires, the following definitions shall apply throughout the Convention:
(a) "Board" means the international Narcotics Control Board.

Commentary

This abbreviation of the name of the International Narcotics Control Board is employed throughout the Single Convention except in article 5 where the full name is used. In article 45 qualifying words supplement the abbreviation to make clear that reference is made to that organ and not to the past Permanent Central Board which is also mentioned in that article. Article 45 refers to the International Narcotics Board by the following phrases: "the Board provided for in article 9" (of the Single Convention), "the new Board referred to in article 9" and "that Board". The Permanent Central Board had been constituted under the terms of chapter VI of the 1925 Convention and functioned from 15 January 1929 to I March 1968. 1 As from 2 March 1968 it was replaced by the International Narcotics Control Board by resolution 1106 (XL) of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations adopted pursuant to article 45, paragraph 2 of the Single Convention. The name "Permanent Central Board" was that given by the 1925 Convention to the earlier organ which called itself first Permanent Central Opium Board and later (since 1965) Permanent Central Narcotics Board I in order to indicate in its name the nature of its work.

See below, comments on article 45.

1 The 1925 Convention entered into force on 25 September 1928; the members of the first Permanent Central Board were elected on 14 December 1928 (Official Journal of the League of Nations, 10th Year, No. I (January 1929), pp. 52-53); the Board held its first meeting on 15 January 1929 (League of Nations document C.C.P./ Ist session/P.V.1).

2 The Permanent Central Board adopted this new name at its Both session (26 May to 4 June 1965). (Document E/OB/W.1925; see also document E/OB/21.)

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (b)

(b) "Cannabis" means the flowering or fruiting tops of the cannabis plant (excluding the seeds and leaves when not accompanied by the tops) from which the resin has not been extracted, by whatever name they may be designated.

Commentary

1. "Cannabis" is a "drug" within the meaning of the Single Convention.1 This treaty uses the word "cannabis" in place of the term "Indian hemp" used by earlier narcotics treaties. 2 It follows in this the practice adopted in the documentation of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. 8 It may be noted that the term "cannabis" of the Single Convention does not refer only to the dried tops of the "pistillate" (female) cannabis plant-as did the term "Indian hemp" employed by the 1925 Convention-but covers all tops including those which are not yet dried, as well as those of the male plants. The term "Indian hemp" as used by the 1925 Convention covered only the dried or fruiting tops of the female plant. It was hold that the tops of the female plants especially those which have not been fertilized are particularly rich in the pharmacologically strongly active resin . 4 The authors of the Single Convention, however, wished to cover also the male plants even if they might yield lesser quantities of the potent material, inter alia, in order to facilitate the task of enforcement officers who would find it mostly impossible and in any event very difficult to distinguish material obtained from female plants from that derived from male plants. Recent studies undertaken after the adoption of the Single Convention appear to have shown that the male and female plants contain similar amounts of cannabinols per weight of fresh plant material. However, the mature female plants have a more ample foliage and contain therefore more cannabinols than the male plants. 5 At the time of this writing intensive research on the chemical composition of cannabis and also of other parts of the cannabis plant is being carried on in several countries. It is definitely established that tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the cannabinols, 6 is a psychoactive principle of cannabis. Whether cannabis contains other psychoactive principles appears to have not yet been established at the time of this writing. The cannabis plant is dioecious, i.e. unisexual flowers are on separate plants. It appears, however, that rare monoecious specimens have been found, i.e. cannabis plants each of which had simultaneously unisexual male as well as female flowers. I The tops of such rare monoecious plants would also be covered by the Single Convention's definition of cannabis.

2. The seeds and the leaves of the plant when not accompanied by the tops are excluded from that definition. The provisions of the Convention concerning cannabis therefore do not apply to such leaves. "Marihuana" cigarettes containing material derived only from the leaves are consequently not subject to the provisions governing cannabis. It was suggested at the Plenipotentiary Conference that the leaves, unlike the tops, were not suitable for smoking "since they were green and burned very quickly if they were dried". 8 It has, however, been found that marihuana cigarettes seized from the illicit traffic in fact contain leaves.

3. While the Parties to the Single Convention need not apply to the leaves when not accompanied by the tops the provisions governing cannabis, they are bound to adopt the necessary measures to prevent the misuse of, and the illicit traffic in, these leaves. 1

4. The words "by whatever name they may be designated" contained in the Single Convention's definition of cannabis are legally superfluous. The name under which any drug-and not only cannabis-appears in commerce does not affect its control status under the Single Convention. These superabundant words were taken over from the definition of "Indian hemp" in the 1925 Convention which contains the phrase "under whatever name they may be designated in commerce". 10 The Plenipotentiary Conference deleted the words "in commerce" from the Third Draft of the Single Convention 11 which it used as working document. The Draft had been prepared by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs which had included these words, following the text of the 1925 Convention. Very little cannabis is at present traded in the international legal commerce. Huge quantities of the drug appear however in the illicit traffic under many different designations. This seems to explain the deletion by the Plenipotentiary Conference. 12 The authors of the 1925 Convention apparently wished, by including the legally superabundant phrase, to alert the Governments to the fact that cannabis appears in commerce under numerous names. It may be noted that the Single Convention excludes from its definition of cannabis the tops of the plant from which the resin has been extracted. The authors of the 1925 Convention did the same in their definition of "Indian hemp" as the drug was then commonly called. They used to this effect the same words as the Single Convention. 13 This exclusion may be justified on the ground that the tops from which the resin has been extracted contain only a very insignificant quantity of the psychoactive principle. Tops from which the resin has been extracted appear to be of little practical importance; but the exclusion, if taken over by national legislation, may cause some difficulties in the fight against the illicit traffic.

5. It may finally be noted that it follows from the context that the term "cannabis" covers in article 2, paragraph 6, also "cannabis resin" and in article 49, paragraph 2, subparagraph (f) "cannabis", "cannabis resin" and "extracts and tinctures of cannabis".

 

1. See article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j) of the Convention and the list of drugs included in Schedule 1, annexed to the Convention.

2. Articles 4 and 11 of the1925 Convention and article 4 of the1948 Protocol; see also voeu2 included in the Final Protocol of the International Opium Conference, signed at The Hague,23 January1912, League of Nations,Treaty Series, vol. VIll, p. 213.

3. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs expressed the view in1953 that the suggestion of the representative of the World Health Organization to use the term "cannabis" instead of "Indian hemp" should be followed; report of the eighth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs,Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Sixteenth Session, Supplement No. 4, para.181.

4. Anselmino,ABC des Stupefiants: Comite central permanent de l' opium, Societe des Nations, Geneve,1931, (League of Nations, document No.:C.C.P.44), p. 30.

5. Report of Professor S. Agurell (Department of Pharmacognosy, University of Uppsala, Sweden) to the Symposium held by the London Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence on the Botany and Chemistry of Cannabis and its Derivatives in London on9 and 10 April1969.

6. Others are cannibinol and cannabidiol.

7. Information obtained from the Chief of the United Nations Laboratory of the Division of Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations Secretariat; see also Encyclopedia Britannica, revised edition (1969), vol. 11, p. 351.

8 Records, vol. 11, p. 176.

9 Article 28, para. 3 of the Single Convention.

10. Article 1.

11. Records, vote If, pp. I et seg.

12. For numerous names of cannabis seeMultilingual List of Narcotic Drugs under International Control, New York, 1968 (document E/CN.7/513, United Nations publication, Sales No. 69XIA), pp. 34-36; see also p. 37 for different names of cannabis resin.

3 Article I of the 1925 Convention.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (a)

(c) "Cannabis plant" means any plant of the genus cannabis.

Commentary

1. The Single Convention uses the term "Cannabis plant" in place of the scientific name"Cannabis sativa L." used in the 1925 Convention I or of "Indian hemp plant". In choosing the word "cannabis plant" rather than "Indian hemp plant", the authors of the Convention followed the practice adopted in documents of the United Nations and the World Health Organization. 1

2. It was formerly held that such a variety of the plant as Cannabis indica L. growing on the Indian-Pakistani subcontinent constitutes a separate species. The genus Cannabis is now considered by dominant opinion to be monotypic, i.e. consisting of a single species Cannabis sativa L. The different varieties cultivated for the drug, fibre or seeds or growing wild in various countries appear to owe their differences, including their divergent contents and potencies of the drug, to environmental and specially climatic differences. The definition of the Single Convention covers all forms of the cannabis plant, no matter whether they arc considered to be different species or varieties. It would also include a species of the genus which might in future be discovered. It must be emphasized that the Single Convention's definition also covers cannabis plants which are grown for the fibre or seeds, which may yield only insignificant amounts of the resin, if any, whose tops may contain only negligible quantities of the active principle and whose character as potential source of a dangerous drug may even be unknown to the local population.

3. As to the exemption from the provisions relating to cannabis plants of the cultivation of that plant grown exclusively for industrial or horticultural Purposes, see below comments on article 28, paragraph 2.

1. See comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (b).

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (d)

(d) "Cannabis resin" means the separated resin, whether crude or purified, obtained from the cannabis plant.

Commentary

1. "Cannabis resin" is a "drug" within the meaning of the Single Convention. 1It is defined separately from "cannabis" although the Convention applies the same rules to cannabis resin as to cannabis. 2The resin can be found principally in the tops of the plant. If the resin were not specifically subjected to international control-as is done by its express mentioning in Schedule I annexed to the Single Convention and its definition in the subparagraph under consideration-it might, if obtained from the tops, be considered to be covered by the Convention as part of the tops, Le. of "cannabis"; but it is held that some resin-however small its quantity may be-might be obtained from some leaves and even from the upper part of the stalk whose capacity to yield resin is, however, said to disappear after the fruits are mature. 3It would be difficult to distinguish resin obtained from the tops from that derived from other parts of the plant. The specific subjection to control of the resin whatever its origin thus facilitates the tasks of enforcement.

2. The 1925 Convention distinguishes between cannabis, which it calls "Indian hemp" and which it defines, and cannabis resin, which it calls "the resin obtained from Indian hemp" and which it does not define. It applies somewhat stricter provisions to such resin than to cannabis. Since it limits its definition of "Indian hemp" to the tops of female plants and covers only resin obtained from these tops, it does not subject to its rather limited control measures resin which might be obtained from the tops of male plants or from other parts of the plant whether male or female.4The Single Convention, on the other hand, applies its comprehensive control regime to cannabis resin of the male as well as the female plants. It does not exclude any part of the cannabis plant as source of the resin. It states that cannabis resin means the resin "obtained from the cannabis plant".

3. The resin, however, becomes "cannabis resin" only when it is "separated" from the plant; without such a separation it remains a part of the cannabis plant, and if in the top part, of "cannabis". The separated resin is "cannabis resin" not only when it is "purified", but also in its "crude"state, i.e. when it is still mixed with other parts of the plant. It may sometimes be difficult to decide whether a substance is already "crude "cannabis resin or still "cannabis", i.e. part of the tops of a cannabis plant.

1. See article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j) of the Convention and the list of drugs included in Schedule 1, annexed to the Convention.

2. Article 2, paras. I and 5, article 28, para. I and article 49; article 49, para. 2, subpara. (f) omits a specific reference to cannabis resin, but this seems to have been an oversight; see below comments on this subparagraph.

3. Document E/CN.7~/AC.3/4/Rev.1, United Nations publication, Sales No. 1952.XI.7, para. C.359, and Anselmino, op, cit., page 30; this appears at least to have been the view at the time of the adoption of the Single Convention and might eventually have to be modified in the light of recent research.

4. Articles I and 11 of the 1925 Convention.




Paragraph 1, subparagraphs (e) and (f)
(e) "Coca bush" means the plant of any species of the genus erythroxylon.
(f) "Coca leaf" meansthe leaf of the coca bush except a leaf from which all ecgonine, cocaine and any other ecgonine alkaloids have been removed.

Commentary

1. There are about 200 species belonging to the genus erythroxylon which is one of the three genera forming the family of erythroxylacea-, the other two being the genus nectaropetalum to which four species belong, and the genusaneulophus, comprising only one species.

2. The "coca leaf" is a "drug" within the meaning of the Single Convention. I The leaves "from which all ecgonine, cocaine and other ecgonine alkaloids have been removed" are used for the manufacture of a flavouring substance of beverages, and therefore have been excluded from the definition of "coca leaf ". The provisions of the Single Convention governing drugs in Schedule I in which the "coca leaf" within the meaning of the definition of this term is included, and the additional special provisions 2 governing this leaf consequently do not apply to leaves from which the alkaloids have been extracted. 3

3. It appears that many of the numerous species of the genus erythroxylonhave at the time of this writing not yet been analyzed for their contents of alkaloids. Some of those which were examined have been found to contain only very small quantities of the dangerous substances. 4 It does not seem probable, but it cannot be excluded, that a species covered by the Single Convention's definition of "coca bush" would not contain any ecgonine, cocaine or any other ecgonine alkaloid. A leaf of such a bush would nevertheless be a "coca leaf" within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (f). Consequently, while a leaf from which the alkaloids have been extracted is excluded from that subparagraph's definition, a leaf which never contained the alkaloids would not.

4. The definition of "coca leaf" in the Single Convention differs in this respect from those of the earlier narcotics treaties. The 1925 and 1931 Conventions contain the same definition which reads as follows: 5

"Coca leaf' means the leaf of the Erythroxylon Coca Lamarck and theErythroxylon novogranatense (Morris) Hieronymus and their varieties, belonging to the family of Erythroxylaceer and the leaf of other species of this genus from which it may be found possible to extract cocaine, either directly or by chemical transformation".

5. Erythroxylon coca Lamarck and Erythroxylon novogranatense (Morris) Hieronymus are at present the only species of the genus erythroxylonwhich with their varieties are of practical importance as sources of the leaves which are of concern to international narcotics control. The leaves of these two species contain significant quantities of the dangerous alkaloids. Both species belonging to the genus erythroxylon are covered by the definition "coca bush" in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (e) of the Single Convention, as are their leaves by the definition of "coca leaf" in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (f); but while the leaves of any other species of the genus erythroxylonno matter whether they contain any of the dangerous alkaloids in questionfall under the definition of the Single Convention, leaves of such a species which did not contain these alkaloids, or from which it was merely found impossible to extract them, would not be covered by the definition of the earlier narcotics treaties.

6. These two earlier treaties, on the other hand, do not exclude from their definition leaves from which the alkaloids have been removed. Since they do not limit the use of coca leaves to medical and scientific purposes, they do not contain a special provision to make possible the manufacture of the flavouring substance.

1 See article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j) of the Convention and the list of drugs included in Schedule 1, annexed to the Convention.

2 See article 2, para. 1, article 26, para. 1, articles 27 and 49.

3. As regards the obligation of Parties to furnish separate estimates and statistical information in respect of coca leaves used for the preparation of the flavouring agent see article 27, para. 2.

4 Document E/CN.7/W.34, pp. 1-5.

5. Articles 1 of the 1925 Covention and article 1 para. 3 of the 1931 Convention.

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (g)
(g) "Commission" means the Commission on Narcotic Drugs ofthe Council.

Commentary

I . "The Commission" to which this subparagraph refers is a "functional commission" of the Economic and Social Council set up pursuant to Article 68 of the Charter of the United Nations. Its composition and terms of reference are determined by the Economic and Social Council. The Commission is at

present composed of representatives of Governments. I The Council could, however, change this character of the Commission and transform it into a body consisting of independent experts, or into a mixed organ composed in part of Government representatives and in part of such experts. 2

2. It may be noted that under the existing rules, States non-members of the United Nations which are members of specialized agencies of the United Nations or Parties to the Single Convention may be elected to membership on the Commission . 3

3. As regards the authority of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council over actions of the Commission under the provisions of the Single Convention see below comments on article 7; see also comments on article 3, paragraph 9.

1. Twenty-four Governments at the time of this writing (Economic and Social Council resolution 1147 (XLI), para. 4).

2. Leland M. Goodrich, Edvard Hambro and Anne Patricia Simons,Charter of the United Nations, Commentarv and Documents, third edition, revised, New York, Columbia University Press, 19~9, pp. 435-436.

3. Economic and Social Council resolution845 (XXXII) of 3 August 1961, Section 11. nara. 1.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (h)
(h) "Council" means the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

Commentary

1. This subparagraph refers to the Economic and Social Council as composed pursuant to Article 61 of the Charter of the United Nations in the version in force at a relevant time.

2. For the functions of the Council, see article 3, paragraph 8, article 7, article 9, article 10, paragraphs 4 and 5, article 14, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (a) and (c) and paragraph 2, article 15, paragraph 1, article 24, paragraph 2 and paragraph 4, subparagraph (a), clause (iii), article 40, paragraph 1, article 45, paragraph 2, and article 47.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (i)
(i)"Cultivation" means the cultivation of the opium poppy, coca bush or cannabis plant.

Commentary

In all places I but two 2 in which the Single Convention employs the term "cultivation" or words derived therefrom, the provision itself indicates which plant is meant. The text states either explicitly 3 or by an express 4 or implied 5 reference to a nearby mention of the plant, whether the term "cultivation" refers to the opium poppy, coca bush or cannabis plant, I or to all three of them. I Only in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (i) and in article 36, paragraph 1, is the word "cultivation" used without such direct statement or reference. The definition of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (i) clarifies the meaning of the term in these two cases; but even without the definition there could not be any doubt that the "cultivation" which under article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (1) constitutes "illicit traffic" or which under article 36, paragraph 1, is a punishable offence refers to cultivation of the opium poppy, the coca bush or cannabis plant. Both of these paragraphs qualify the "cultivation" with which they deal as being "contrary to the provisions" 8 of the Single Convention, which contains provisions regarding the opium poppy, the coca bush and cannabis plant only, and does not deal with any other plant. 9

1. Article 20, para. 3, article 22, article 23, para. I and para. 2, introductory subpara. and subparas. (a), (b), (c) and (d), article 25, para. 1, article 26, paras. I and 2 and article 28, paras. 1 and 2.

2 Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (1) and article 36, para. 1.

3 All provisions mentioned in the preceding foot-note, except article 23, para. 2, subparas. (b) and (c).

4 Article 23, para. 2, subpara. (b).

5 Article 23, para. 2, subpara. (c).

6. All provisions mentioned in foot-note above, except article 22.

7. Article 22.

8. The French text of article 1, para. 1, subpara. (1) uses the phrase "contraires aux buts de la presente Convention", see below comments on article 1, para. 1, subp ra. (1).

9. For a particular meaning of the word "cultivate" and terms "derived" therefrom see resolution III of the United Nations Opium Conference of 1953, document E/NT/8, United Nations publication, Sales No. 1953.XI.6.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (j)
(j) "Drug" means any of the substances in Schedules I and 11, whether natural or synthetic.

Commentary

1. The term "drug" as defined in this subparagraph covers all substances for which the Single Convention requires the application of control measures except:

(a) The opium poppy, 1 coca bush 2 and cannabis plant, 3

(b) Poppy straw, 4

(c) The leaves of the cannabis plant; 5 and

(d) "Substances which do not fall" under the Single Convention, "but which may be used in the illicit manufacture of drugs 6.

2. All the substances in Schedules I and 11 are also "drugs" in the ordinary meaning of this English word. Contrary to the French text of some pre-war narcotics treaties, I the French version of the Single Convention does not employ the word "drogue", which was found to be inadequate, as an equivalent to "drug" in the English text. 8 It uses instead the noun "stupefiant" which corresponds to the English phrase "narcotic drug". The Spanish text follows the French version in employing the word "estupefiaciente". The words"stupefiant" and "estupefaciente" mean inducing stupor or sleep, as does the English word "narcotic". Cocaine, cannabis and cannabis resin, which are listed in Schedule 1, nevertheless do not have the property of inducing sleep or stupor. There are, on the other hand, substances (e.g. ether) which have this property, but are not included in Schedules I or 11, and cannot be added to them under article 3, whose criteria do not fit these substances. The words "stupefiant" or "estupefaciente", which cover all substances in Schedules I and 11 whether or not they induce sleep or stupor, have therefore in the Single Convention a legal sense which differs from their literal meaning. 9

3. In accordance with the definition given below in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (u), Schedules I and 11, are the correspondingly numbered lists of drugs annexed to the Single Convention, as amended from time to time in accordance with article 3. A particular substance may thus become or cease to be a "drug", by the operation of article 3 by which substances may be added to, or deleted from, the Schedules.

4. The term "natural" refers to those substances in the Schedules which are obtained from the opium poppy, coca bush or cannabis plant, and the term "synthetic" to drugs manufactured by a process of full chemical synthesis. The same drug may, however, be either "natural" or "synthetic", e.g. morphine, which may be manufactured from opium or poppy straw, both products of the opium poppy, or may be made by a process of full chemical synthesis. The phrase "whether natural or synthetic" makes it clear that a "natural" drug does not cease to be a drug if it is manufactured synthetically. The chemical structure of the substance governs, and not the way in which it is obtained. 10

1. Article 20, para. 3; article 23 and article 25, para. 1, subpara.(a).

2. Article 26.

3. Article 28.

4 Article 20, para. I (b); article 25; article 29, para. 3; article 30, para. 2, subpara. (a).

5. Article 28, para. 3.

6. Article 2, para. 8; acetic anhydride used in the manufacture of heroin might be such a substance in some countries; Records, vol. 1, p. 64.

7. Article 1, para. 2 of the 1931 Convention; title of the 1936 Convention.

8. The French and Spanish versions of the First Draft of the Single Convention prepared by the United Nations Secretariat use the words "drogue" and "droga" respectively (document E/CN.7/AC.3/3, section I (f)). The Second and Third Drafts employ the words"stupefiant" and"estupefaciente" (document E/CN.7/AC.3/7, article I(k) and E/CN.7/AC.3/9, article I(k)). The second draft was prepared by the Secretariat on the basis of decisions of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs; the third draft was prepared by the Commission itself and served as the working document for the Plenipotentiary Conference. The Russian version of the Single Convention (article 1, para. 1, subpara.(k)) uses the term"narkoticheskoe sredstvo", thus following the French and Spanish versions.

9. The word "narcotic" is used in the same sense as "stupefiant" and "estupefaciente" in the French and Spanish texts, in the title and preamble of the English version of the Single Convention, in the name of the International Narcotics Control Board and in article 35, para. (b) in the phrase "illicit traffic in narcotic drugs"; see also the title of resolution I of the Plenipotentiary Conference, Records, vol. 11, p. 316, the name of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and of the former Permanent Central Narcotics Board; see also the title and preamble of the 1931 Convention, articles I and 5 of the 1936 Convention and various provisions of the 1953 Protocol.

10 See also the provision of article 1, para. 2, penultimate subparagraph of the 1931 Convention, which reads: "The substances mentioned in this paragraph shall be considered as drugs even if produced by a synthetic process".

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (k)
(k) "General Assembly" means the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Commentary

The "General Assembly" is mentioned in articles 6, 7 and 10, paragraph 6; See also comments on article 1 , paragraph 1, subparagraph (h).

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (1)
(1) "Illicit traffic" means cultivation or trafficking in drugs contrary to the provisions of this Convention.

Commentary

1. The term "trafficking" not only includes all forms of trade and distribution, but also manufacture I and "production" i.e. "separation of opium, coca leaves, cannabis and cannabis resin from the plants from which they are obtained" . 2

2. The English text defines "illicit traffic" as cultivation or trafficking "contrary to the provisions" of the Single Convention, while the French version uses the phrase"contraires aux buts" of that treaty. 3 The phrase "trafic illicite" of the French text has thus a somewhat broader meaning than the words "illicit traffic" in the English text; but this divergence is of little if any importance. It may in particular be noted that articles 36 and 37, which contain detailed provisions for action against illicit traffickers, do not even employ the term "illicit traffic" or "illicit trafficker" but enumerate in a casuistic manner the actions which are subject to penal law 4 or refer to such an enumeration. 5

3. The definition of subparagraph (1) limits the actions contrary to the provisions of the Single Convention 6 which it declares to be "illicit traffic" to cultivation of the opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis plant 7 and to trafficking in "drugs" (i.e. in substances listed in Schedules I and 11). 11 The term "illicit traffic" is, however, used in article 28, paragraph 3 in the phrase "illicit traffic in the leaves of the cannabis plant", which is intended to mean "in the leaves of the cannabis plant not accompanied by the tops of that plant". Such leaves are, however, excluded from the definition of cannabis, are not separately listed in Schedules I and 11 and are therefore not "drugs" within the meaning of that word in the Single Convention. The term "illicit traffic" as used in article 28, paragraph 3 therefore does not accord with its definition in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (1); it is however employed in conformity with its ordinary meaning. See also comments on article 28, paragraph 3. 9

1. For the definition of manufacture, see below, article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

2. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (t).

3. The Spanish text uses the phrase"contrarios a las disposiciones de la presente Convencion", which corresponds exactly to the words of the English version.

4. Article 36.

5. Article 37.

6. In the French text "contraires aux buts"; see above.

7 Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (i).

8. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

9. Provisions of the Single Convention which use the term "illicit traffic" in accordance with its definition in article 1, para. 1, subpara. (1), article 18, para. I (c), article 22, article 24, para. 1, subpara. (b), para. 4, subpara. (b) and para. 5, subpara. (b) and article 35, paras. (a), (b) and (c).

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (m)
(m) "Import" and "export" mean in their respective connotations the Physical transfer of drugs from one State to another State, or from one territory to another territory of the same State.

Commentary

1. The definition is in substance the same and textually nearly the same as that included in article I of the 1953 Protocol. I The term "State" denotes the whole area for which a "State", within the meaning of this term in international law, has international responsibility. A "territory" is a part of a "State" which is treated as a separate entity for the purposes of narcotics control, in particular for the application of the import certificate and export authorization system provided for in article 31 of the Single Convention . 2 The question arises as to the exact moment at which an export or import has taken place. As regards an export, is it the moment at which the consignment has been dispatched, that at which it passes customs control, or that at which it crosses the frontier of the exporting country or territory? Similarly, as regards an import, is it the moment of crossing the border of the importing country or territory, that of customs clearance, or that of receipt by the consignee? The time of border crossing, customs clearance and dispatch or receipt-as the case may be-may not fall into the same quarter of the calendar year. A decision on this question is relevant because Parties to the Single Convention are required to furnish to the International Narcotics Control Board.3 quarterly statistics on their imports and exports of drugs and poppy straw, I and the choice of the moment at which the import and export are to be considered to have taken place may determine in which of the two succeeding quarterly statistical reports a given shipment is to be included. The International Narcotics Control Board is of the opinion that the time of actual movement across the frontiers should be considered as the moment of export or import for the purpose of statistics, and not the time of customs clearance or of issue of the export and import authorization. 5

2. National authorities have stated on the other hand, that they were not in a position to know the particulars of an importation of narcotics until the importer transmitted the documents required for customs clearance. They were therefore not able to include in their statistical reports an import shipment at the moment at which it crossed the border of the importing country or territory but only after it received clearance.

3. It is, however, very important that the border authorities should note without delay the arrival of a narcotics shipment for customs inspection, in order to ensure that pending clearance the required custodial precautions are taken to prevent theft. The copy of the export authorization which must accompany the shipment will enable the authorities to take such immediate notice. I The authorization will also contain all particulars required for preparing the statistical reports. There is no need to wait for the customs clearance, which in some countries may take considerable time if the procedure depends on some action to be taken by the importer such as the production of documents.

4. Some national authorities may not be aware of the actual entry or exit of a narcotics shipment before its arrival for customs control. They are generally unable to note the exact moment of its movement over the frontier, nor to collect at that time the particulars needed for the purposes of narcotics control; but the interval between the crossing of the frontier by an import shipment and its receipt by the customs office can and should be very short, and so can and should be the time between the release by the customs office of an export consignment and its physical exit from the country or territory concerned. It appears that what the Board had in mind was not the actual moment of movement over the frontier, which the national authorities generally cannot exactly establish and at which moment in any case they can hardly establish the details which they need for the performance of their functions. What the Board seems to have intended is, in the case of an import, the earliest possible moment at which the authorities could become aware of the entry of the shipment, and, in the case of an export, a moment as near as possible to the actual movement over the frontier, i.e. in the former case, the arrival of the goods for customs control, and in the latter case, their departure from the customs house or customs control. In fact the Board did not require that the actual moment of the movement over the border should be taken into account in establishing the statistical figures, but only that the "statistics should be based on actual movement across frontiers". 11 It is, of course, necessary that the customs authorities should handle narcotics shipments with the greatest possible dispatch.

5. By accepting the foregoing proposed understanding of the terms "import" and "export", such difficulties will also be avoided as that of determining the line which forms the legal frontier. The receipt and release by customs authorities are matters of fact, while the line of the frontier may be legally disputed. I other drugs". No mention is made in the definition of the transformation of "drugs" into substances which are not "drugs", i.e. substances not falling under the control of the Single Convention; but the word "manufacture" is also used for this kind of transformation in article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) in the phrase "drugs to be utilized for the manufacture of other drugs, of preparations in Schedule 111, and of substances not covered by this Convention", and in a similar phrase of article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b). Is

3. While the Single Convention has not taken over from the earlier treaties the term "conversion", and includes Part of what was formerly called "conversion" in the definition of its expanded term "manufacture", it still employs the term "convertible " in article 3, paragraph 3, subparagraph (iii). 13 For the meaning of "convertible", see comments on this subparagraph below.

4. It is in several places "expressly indicated" 14 by the Single Convention that the term "manufacture" applies also to the making from drugs of substances not covered by the Convention, and not only to the making of drugs; see article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x), clause (ii), article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph(b), article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph(b) and article 21, paragraph 1, subparagraph(b). "I In article 4, paragraph (c) it is on the other hand explicitly stated that the required limitation of manufacture "exclusively to medical and scientific purposes" relates only to drugs. A general obligation of Parties to limit the manufacture of substances not covered by the Single Convention to such purposes would of course not make sense. Such an express restriction of the meaning of the term accords with its definition in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n), with the aims of the treaty and with the obvious will of the Parties, as expressed in article 4, paragraph (c) and several other provisions of the Single Convention. 16 It appears, however, that in some other places it would be more in conformity with the aims of the Convention if the term "manufacture" could be understood in a broader meaning than that of making "drugs" only, although the provisions concerned expressly limit the term in that sense. Article 29, paragraph 1, and paragraph 2, subparagraph (a) and (b) require that the "manufacture of drugs" be undertaken only under licence or by a State enterprise, that all persons and enterprises engaged in the "manufacture of drugs" be controlled, and that control under licence be exercised over the establishments and premises on which "such manufacture" (i.e. of drugs) may take place. It is, however, essential for the effective functioning of the control regime of the Single Convention that the measures prescribed by these provisions should be applied not only to the manufacture of "drugs", but also to the making, from "drugs", of substances not covered by the Single Convention. A serious gap in the control system would otherwise exist. It is on the other hand not necessary that the makers of such substances be required to "obtain periodical permits specifying the kinds and amounts" of the substances not covered by the Single Convention "which they shall be entitled" to make. Article 29, paragraph 2, subparagraph (c) requiring such periodical permits needs to be applied only to manufacturers of "drugs", in accordance with its literal meaning. The provision of article 29, paragraph 3 restricting the quantities of drugs and poppy straw which "drug manufacturers" may hold in stock could usefully be applied also to makers, from drugs, of substances not covered by the Single Convention; but this does not appear to be as essential as the application of paragraph I and paragraph 2, subparagraphs (a) and (b); see below comments on article 29.

5. It is also important that makers, from drugs, of substances not covered by the Single Convention should keep detailed records of their transactions Article 34, paragraph(b) requires Parties to impose such an obligation on "manufacturers". If the definition of - manufacture" in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n) were used in interpreting the term "manufacturers" in article 34, paragraph(b), only manufacturers of "drugs", and not makers of substances not covered by the Single Convention, would be obligated to keep these essential records; this was, however, undoubtedly not the intention of the authors of the Single Convention. See below comments on article 34, paragraph(b).

6. In two other places the term "manufacture"" and "manufacturing"" respectively are used without qualifying words. Looking at these provisions in the light of the objects and purpose of the Single Convention it appears not to be necessary to apply these terms to other substances than "drugs". The provision employing the term "manufacture" 17 stipulates that the Parties to the Single Convention should apply penal measures to "manufacture" and other enumerated activities which are contrary to the provisions of the Convention. The manufacture of substances not covered by the Convention, i.e. not causing harm whose prevention is the aim of the treaty, is obviously not an activity which the authors of the Single Convention intended should be penalized. The other provision 18 requires that the Economic and Social Council "shall give consideration to the importance of including on the (International Narcotics Control) Board, in equitable proportion, persons possessing a knowledge of the drug situation in the producing, manufacturing and consuming countries, and connected with such countries". 19 There is no reason to assume that the authors of the Single Convention wished to extend the application of this provision to countries other than those manufacturing *drugs". The terms "manufacture" and "manufacturing" used respectively in them two provisions must be understood in the narrow sense given to the word "manufacture" in the definition in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n), i.e. as applying only to drugs; see below comments on article 9, paragraph 3 and article 36, paragraph I

7. The term "manufacture", as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph(n), does not include those processes of making drugs which the Convention calls "production", i.e. the separation of the drugs opium, coca leaves, cannabis and cannabis resin from the plants from which they are obtained. If by the procedure foreseen in article 3 of the Single Convention a substance obtained from another plant than the opium poppy, cannabis plant or coca bush is in the future added to Schedule I or II, and thus obtains the legal character of a "drug" within the meaning of the Convention, the separation of such a substance from the plant would not be "production", but "manufacture" in the sense in which this term is defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n). If, by the procedure of article 3, particular kinds of cannabis leaves found to be specially potent are added to Schedule I or 11, and thus become "drugs" although not accompanied by the tops, 10 their separation from the cannabis plant would also not be "production" but "manufacture".

8. The definition of "manufacture" in the subparagraph (n) includes "refining". In this it follows the definition of the 1931 Convention . 21 It Will be recalled in this connexion that the 1925 Convention gives separate definitions for "crude cocaine" and "cocaine". 22 The fact that only "crude cocaine" is there treated as a separate drug may perhaps be because at the time of the adoption of the 1925 Convention, "crude cocaine" was the only crude drug which was normally exported and imported by countries for the purpose of refinement. 23 It is still so exported and imported. Governments were in the past required to furnish to the Permanent Central Narcotics Board 24 separate statistics on the manufacture of crude morphine and refined morphine, and quite recently, of crude and refined cocaine. 25

9. "Refining", by being included in the definition, has been subjected to the provisions of the Single Convention providing for the control of the 11 manufacture" of "drugs"; it must thus not be undertaken except for medical and scientific purposes '26 nor otherwise than by licensed persons or state enterprises, and only in licensed establishments and premises 21 etc. The special mention of "refining" in the definition of "manufacture" also makes clear that the International Narcotics Control Board can request separate statistics on the manufacture of crude and refined drugs 11 if it should find it necessary for the performance of its functions. The Board may perhaps in the future arrive at such a conclusion in respect of particular drugs. Such a separate counting would hardly be useful where the crude stage occurs only as an intermediary product in a factory manufacturing the refined drug; but where the crude substance is made available in trade, and particularly where it is made in another country than that which refines it, separate figures may possibly be of interest to the Board. In fact, the Single Convention as adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference e xpressly requires the furnishing of such separate data in one particular case. The Conference included in Schedule I "concentrate of poppy straw", defining it as "the material arising when poppy straw has entered into a process for the concentration of its alkaloids, when such material is made available in trade." The concentrate, which is in fact crude morphine, is thus considered to be a drug separate from morphine, and the Parties to the Single Convention are consequently required to furnish separate statistical information for morphine and "concentrate of poppy straw", "I but only if the concentrate is made available in trade, i.e. if it does not merely constitute an intermediary product in a factory's process of making morphine. Before 1966, the concentrate was considered by the Permanent Central Narcotics Board to be crude morphine .30 That Board did not publish separate figures for morphine and the concentrate, but included the morphine content of the concentrate in the figures which it published on morphine. 31 If by operation of article 3 of the Single Convention "concentrate of poppy straw" is deleted from Schedule I and ceases to be a separate "drug", the International Narcotics Control Board would still be entitled to require the Parties to furnish separate data on morphine and on the concentrate, which would in this case be held to be "crude morphine". The Board may do the same in respect of other crude and refined drugs if it decides to consider the making of the crude product and its "refining" as two separate manufacturing processes. The Board could in such cases avoid double-counting by including appropriate instructions in the form which Parties to the Single Convention are obligated to use in making their statistical reports. 11

10. The 1931 Convention excludes from the term "conversion" "the transformation of alkaloids into their salts". 3' The term "manufacture" as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n) includes a part of what is called 11 conversion" in the 1931 Convention and in particular the "transformation of drugs into other drugs", but it does not exclude from that transformation that of alkaloids into their salts. The salts of the drugs listed in Schedule 1, including the salts of possible esters, ethers and isomers of those drugs whenever the existence of such salts is possible, and the salts of drugs in Schedule 11, including the salts of possible isomers of drugs in Schedule 11 whenever the existence of such salts is possible, are expressly listed respectively in Schedules I and 11. 34 The salts are thus "drugs" in the meaning of the Single Convention . 31 The transformation of basic drugs into their salts, whether of the basic drugs listed individually in Schedules I and 11 or of their esters, ethers or isomers, is thus "transformation of drugs into other drugs" and consequently "manufacture" of "drugs". The provisions of the Single Convention controlling the .manufacture" of "drugs" govern therefore also the making of the salts. In regard to the salts, however, the International Narcotics Control Board does not need separate estimates of the requirements of drugs or separate statistical reports. Parties to the Single Convention are required to furnish to the Board annual estimates and, if necessary, supplementary estimates of their "drug" requirements, and statistical reports in the form and manner prescribed by the Board on forms prepared by that organ under the terms of articles 19 and 20. On the basis of the letter of the provisions of the Single Convention, 36 the Board could perhaps require the Parties to furnish separate estimates and statistical data in respect of the salts, The "drugs" are, however, generally not used in form of pure basic drugs and their salts, but much more often in form of preparations 31 of the basic drugs and in particular of their salts. The Board does not need separate data on the various forms in which the drugs are used, and thus requires the Parties to the Single Convention to furnish information covering all forms of each drug without distinguishing between them. The Board has therefore inserted in its forms for Government reports instructions 38 to the effect that the figures included in estimates and statistical returns should cover the quantities of pure drugs contained in refined drugs, crude drugs, salts and preparations, which must also be taken into account in compiling reports. The pure drug content is thus the common factor of the various categories of substances which must be considered in computing the global figures. Separate estimates must, however, be furnished for the quantities of drugs (i.e. pure drug content) to be utilized for the making (manufacture) of preparations listed in Schedule III annexed to the Single Convention, 11 and separate statistics must be supplied in respect to the quantities of drugs (i.e. pure drug content) so utilized . 40 Preparations listed in Schedule III are exempted from several control provisions of the Single Convention. 41 The Board, however, does not require the Parties to the Single Convention to furnish estimates under article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) of the quantities of drugs to be utilized for the manufacture of salts, although salts are "other drugs" within the meaning of this phrase, nor does it request the Government to supply under article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) statistical information on the utilization of drugs for such manufacture.

11. "The isomers, unless specifically excepted, of the drugs" in Schedule I "whenever the existence of such isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation", "the esters and ethers, unless appearing in another Schedule, of the drugs in this Schedule whenever the existence of such esters or ethers is possible", and "the isomers, unless specifically excepted, of the drugs" in Schedule 11 "whenever the existence of such isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation", are included in Schedules I and It respectively. 11 They are therefore "drugs" within the meaning of this term in the Single Convention . 43 The manufacture of such isomers, esters and ethers is thus "manufacture" of drugs in the sense of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n) and therefore subject to the provisions of the Single Convention governing the manufacture of drugs.

12. The manufacture of preparations of drugs is, however, not "manufacture" of drugs in the sense of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n). 44 The Single Convention provides that preparations should be subjected to the same measures of control as the drugs which they contain. There are a few exceptions .45 The making of preparations is therefore subject to those control provisions which apply to the manufacture of drugs. Manufacturers of preparations need not obtain the periodical permits which manufacturers of drugs must have, and which indicate the kind and amounts of drugs which the latter are entitled to make. 411

1. It is identical with the definition of the Third Draft of the Single Convention (article 1, para. (p)) which was prepared by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

2. For a definition of "territory" see below article 1, para. 1, subpara. (y). Express provision for territories as separate administrative entities for purposes of narcotics control has already been made in the 1931 Convention and 1953 Protocol, but not Yet in the 1912 and 1925 Conventions.

3. Articles 5 and 9 of the Single Convention.

4. Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (d), para. 2, subpara. (b).

5. Form A/S of the International Narcotics Control Board, 5th edition (November 1969), instruction 10.

6. Document of the Permanent Central Narcotics Board, E/OB/W513, para. 59.

7 Article 31, para, 6 of the Single Convention; see also below comments on article 31, para. 6 and para. 7, subpara. (c).

8. Form A/S referred to in foot-note 5 above, instruction 10.

9. A difference of opinion may particularly arise in case of shipments entering or leaving the country or territory by sea, namely whether the outer line of the territorial sea forms the national border (theory of sovereignty over the territorial sea) or the low water mark on land (theory of servitude). The theory of sovereignty is now dominant; see articles I and 2 of the Convention of 1958 on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 516, p. 205; the width of the territorial sea of a particular country and thus its outer line may also be controversial.

12 The French text uses the word"transformation" and the Spanish text the word"transformacion" for the English word "transformation". The French versions of the earlier narcotics treaties use the word"transformation" for the English word 11 conversion"; the Spanish text of the 1953 Protocol uses in article 7, para.2 "convertir" for the English "convert".

13 The French text uses"transformable" and the Spanish text"que puede set transformada".

14 Article 1, para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

15 In the provisions of articles19, 20 and 21 the term "manufacture" refers also to the compounding of preparations in Schedule 111,

16 Article 20, para. 1, subpara.(b) (phrase: "utilization of poppy straw for the manufacture of drugs"), article 21, para. 1, introductory para. and para. 3 (in para. 3 not only the definition of "manufacture" in article 1, para. 1, subpara.(n) but also the context requires that the word "manufactured" be applied only to drugs); and article 25, para. I subpara.(b); for the use of the phrase "manufacturers of opium alkaloids, medicinal opium or opium preparations" see article 23, para. 2, subpara.(e).

17 Article 36, para. 1.

18. Article 9, para. 3.

19. These words follow the corresponding text of the fourth para. of article 19 of the 1925 Convention as amended by the 1946 Protocol (fifth para. of the unamended text).

20 Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (b).

21 Article 1, para. 4.

22 Article 1.

23 1931 Commentary, para. 6, note 2 (p. 18).

24. See above comments on article 1, para. 1, introductory para. and subpara. (a).

25 Document of the International Narcotics Control Board, E/INCB/7, annex B, synoptic tables, table IV, foot-note

26 Article 4, para. (c).

27 Article 29, para. I and para. 2, subparas. (a) and (b),

28. Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (a).

29. Form C/S of the International Narcotics Control Board (4th edition, November 1969), instruction No. 2 and foot-note (1) on page 7, and Form A/S of the Board (5th edition, November 1969), instruction No. 2 and foot-note (e) on page 7.

30 Document of the International Narcotics Control Board, E/INCB/7, annex B, synoptic tables, table 111, foot-note *.

31 Document of the Permanent Central Narcotics Board, E/OB/21, annex B, synoptic tables, table III.

32 Article 20, para. 1, introductory subpara. and article 13, para. 1; see also article 19, para. 1, introductory subpara. and article 12, para I.

33 Article 1, para. 4 of the Single Convention.

34 Last paragraphs of Schedules I and 11.

35. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j)

36. Article 11 para. 1, subpara. (j) and (n), the last paragraphs of Schedules I and 11, article 19 and article 20.

37. "Preparation" is defined in article 1, para. 1, subpara. (s) as "a mixture, solid Or liquid, containing a drug".

38 Form C/S (4th edition, November 1969), Form A/S (5th edition, November 1969) and Form B/S (6th edition, March 1970) of the Board, instructions No. 3; article 2, para. 3 of the Single Convention.

39. Article 19, para. 1, subpara. (b). 

40. Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (b). 

41. Article 2, para. 4.

42. Third and second para. from the bottom of Schedule I and penultimate para. of Schedule 11 as adopted by the Plenipotentiary Conference.

43. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

44. The term "manufacture" is however applied to the making of preparations in Schedule III in article 2, para. 4, article 19, para. 1, subpara. (b), article 20, para. 1, subpara (h) and article 21, para, 1, subpara. (b). The term "manufacturers" is used in article 23, para, 2, subpara. (e) for makers of opium preparations; see also above foot-note 15.

45. Article 2, para. 3.

46. Article 2, para. 3 and article 29, para. 2, subpara. (c).

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (o)
(a) "Medicinal opium" means opium which has undergone the processes necessary to adapt it for medicinal use.

Commentary

1 . The Single Convention follows earlier narcotics treaties I in defining medicinal opium" as a special form of opium in which that drug is used in medical treatment. The early treaties 2 defined three forms of opium i.e. "raw opium", "prepared opium", and "medicinal opium", because they provided different regimes for each of them. The 1953 Protocol abolished these differences, subjecting all three forms to the same control measures. The Protocol made this clear by expressly stating in its definition of opium that it meant "the coagulated juice of the poppy in whatever form including raw opium, medicinal opium and prepared opium". 3 The Single Convention subjects opium in all its forms to the same regime, opium being listed in Schedule I and consequently falling under the same regime as other drugs in the Schedule. I It uses the term "medicinal opium" in a single provision, article 23, paragraph 2, subparagraph (e). This subparagraph requires a Party to the Single Convention which permits the cultivation of the opium poppy for the production 5 of opium, to limit the right of maintaining (wholesale) stocks of opium 6 to its "National Opium Agency". 7 It authorizes the Party to except from this exclusive right of the Agency opium stocks "held by manufacturers of opium alkaloids, medicinal opium 11 or opium preparations".

2. Lactose is generally added to the opium to reduce its morphine content to the standard of about 10 percent prescribed for "medicinal opium". When containing lactose or other admixtures such as burnt sugar or powdered cocoa husk, medicinal opium is in fact a "preparation" 9 of opium. In any event, whether it is an opium preparation or only manipulated opium, it is subject to the provisions of the Single Convention controlling opium. 10

1. Chapter III, introductory paragraph of the 1912 Convention; article I of the 1925 Convention; and article I of the 1931 Convention. The term is also used, but not defined in the 1948 Protocol (article 4) and the 1953 Protocol (article 1) (in the definition of opium) and article 7, para. 5.

2 The 1912 introductory paras. of Chapters 1, 11 and III and the 1925 (article 1). Conventions.

3. Article 1.

4. Article 2, para. 1.

5. For a definition of production see below article 1, para. 1, subpara. (t); see also above the comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

6. For a definition of "stocks" see below article 1, para. 1, subpara. (x); the definition excludes stocks held by retail outlets.

7. The "national opium agency" is the "one or more government agencies" which a Party permitting the cultivation of the opium poppy for the production of opium must charge with carrying out the functions described in article 23, para. 2.

8. The fifth edition of the Pharmacopoeia Helvetica (1949), p. 765, defines "medicinal opium" as opium powder reduced to a content of 9.2 to 10.2 per cent of anhydrous morphine by the addition of lactose. This pharmacopoeas calls "medicinal opium" also "powdered opium". The term "medicinal opium" has been abandoned in several new pharmacopoeas, e.g. the British Pharmacopea of 1968, p. 686, which uses the term "Powdered Opium"; and Pharmacopea Internationalis, first edition, vol. 1, p. 164which uses the term "Standardized Powdered Opium"; the same name is used in its second edition (1967), p. 403.

9. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (s).

10. Article 2, paras. I and 3.

Paragraph 1, subparagraphs (p), (q) and (r)
(p) "Opium" means the coagulated juice of the opium poppy.
(q) "Opium poppy" means the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L
(r) "Poppy straw" means all parts (except the seeds) of the opium poppy, after mowing.

Commentary

1. It is sometimes difficult to decide, and therefore a difference of opinion exists whether different forms of a plant constitute different varieties of the same species or different species of the same genus, e.g. "Papaver setigerum" is by some considered to be a variety of the species Papaver somniferum L. and by others a separate species. I It appears that some, albeit insignificant, quantities of morphine can be obtained fromPapaver setigerum.

2. The authors of the Single Convention appear to have assumed that all plants from which opium can be obtained in significant quantities are only varieties of a single species, Papaver somniferum L. They therefore defined "opium poppy" as the plant of the species Papaver somniferum L. The 1953 Protocol, on the other hand, defines "Poppy" to mean "the plant Papaver somniferum L., and any other species of Papaverwhich may be used for the production of opium". 2

3. Should any plant which is considered not to be a variety of the species Papaver somniferum L., but another species of the genus Papaver, be found to yield opium, 3 the plant itself and its product would not be covered by the control provisions of the Single Convention, but only by those of the Protocol. The coagulated juice of the plant would for the purposes of the Single Convention not be "opium" but could by the operation of article 3 of the Single Convention be listed in Schedule I and become a "drug" of Schedule I-like the "opium" obtained from the species"Papaver somniferum L."-and thus be placed under the regime provided by the Single Convention for drugs in this Schedule. Its separation from the plant, not being "opium poppy" within the meaning of the Single Convention, would also not be "production", 4 but "manufacture". 5 Another way of handling such a situation would be an amendment of the definition of opium poppy so as to cover the additional species found to yield opium. it might in such a case be possible to obtain for such a revision the consenus of the Parties to the Single Convention required for the application of the simplified procedure foreseen in article 47. 6

4. The straw of a plant which is not a variety of the species Papaver somniferum L., but which nevertheless contains morphine for extraction, would not be "poppy straw" within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (r). The special provisions 7 of the Single Convention governing 11 poppy straw" would therefore not apply to such straw. If a plant which, although not belonging to the species Papaver somniferum, is any other species of Papaver, has straw containing morphine, but cannot be used for the production of opium, its straw would also not be "poppy straw" under the terms of the 1953 Protocol, and therefore would not be controlled by its provisions governing that straw. 8 If Papaver setigerum is considered to be only a variety of Papaver somniferum, its capsules and stems would after mowing be "poppy straw" in the sense of the Single Convention. If the plant is held, however, to be a separate species, its capsules and stems would not be subject to the provisions of the Convention relaing to "poppy straw". The same conclusion must be drawn in respect of the 1953 Protocol. The capsules and straw would be "poppy straw" under the terms of the Protocol if the plant is held to be only a variety, and would not have that legal character if it is considered a separate species. Under the definitions of the Protocol, the capsules and stems of Papaver somniferum L. are "poppy straw" no matter whether the plant can be used for the production of opium; those of any other species of Papaver, however, would be "poppy straw" only if that species can be used for such production. While the plant Papaver somniferum L. properly so called yields opium, Papaver setigerum does not.

5. The legal position of the capsules and stems of the Papaver setigerum is however hardly of any practical importance, since they contain only insignificant quantities of morphine. The legal problems involved become, however, very relevant in the case of Papaver bracteatum. It has been found that the two-year-old roots of this plant contain 0.7 to 1.3 per cent thebaine of their dried weight. A hectare of land cultivated with Papaver bracteatum could yield a quantity of roots sufficient for the extraction of thirty kilograms of thebaine, 9 a drug listed in Schedule I of the Single Convention. 10

6. Papaver bracteatum and its close relative Papaver orientale 11 are considered to be another species of the genus Papaver than Papaver somniferum. 11 If this opinion is accepted, no parts of Papaver bracteatum can be considered to be "poppy straw" as defined in the Single Convention. They are, however, also not poppy straw under the terms of the 1953 Protocol, because Papaver bracteatum cannot be used for the production of opium; but the extraction of thebaine from the roots of this plant would be "manufacture" 11 of a "drug" and thus be controlled by the provisions of the Single Convention governing "manufacture".

7. "Poppy straw" is defined in subparagraph (r) under consideration to mean "all parts (except the seeds) of the opium poppy, after mowing". 14 The authors of the Single Convention appear to have used the term "mowing" because they thought only of the capsule and the stem (particularly its upper part) as source of "drugs". It may be assumed that they would have used another term than "mowing" if they had thought of the roots, which must be dug out, as possible raw material for the manufacture of drugs. They might have. used words to make clear that all parts of the plant, except the seeds, after having been removed from the land on which they are grown, are included in the definition. It is, however, suggested that it is possible to understand the present text as including the roots. They are still a part of the plant after mowing has taken place, although they have to be dug out to be used for the manufacture of the drug. If, however, it is found desirable to revise the Convention in order to extend its regime to such plants as Papaver bracteatum and their parts, it may be advisable not only to broaden the definition of opium poppy so as to include other species of the genusPapaver than Papaver somniferum, but also to modify the definition of "poppy straw" so as to remove any possible doubt that it also comprises the roots of the plant.

8. It may be noted that "poppy straw" is not a "drug" " under the terms of the Single Convention. It appears neither in Schedule I nor in Schedule 11 as a separate entry. It is, however, subject to a few rules. "

9. The Single Convention follows the 1953 Protocol 11 in giving a definition of opium which covers all three varieties of this drug, namely "raw opium", "medicinal opium" and "prepared opium", which earlier narcotics treaties defined separately and subjected to different rules. The treaties prior to the 1953 Protocol did not contain one single term covering all three types of opium.

10. See also above comments on article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (o).

1. United States of America. Treasury Department. Bureau of Narcotics,The Opium Poppy and Other Poppies, Washington D.C., United States Government Printing Office, 1944, pp. 33, 37 and 38.

2. The 1912 Convention (chapter 1, introductory paragraph), the 1925 Convention (article 1) and the 1931 Convention (article 1, para, 3) do not give a separate definition of the plant, but name"Papaver somniferum" (1912) or"Papaver somniferum L" (1925 and 1931) as source of the "raw opium" which they define.

3. In the general sense, since thecoagulated latex in question would not be "opium" within the meaning of the definition of this term in the Single Convention although it would be opium under the terms of the 1953 Protocol; it is held to be improbable that a plant not belonging to the speciesPapaver somniferum would be found to yield opium or, in significant quantities, morphine; see United States of America, Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics, op. cit. p. 55; but this opinion may be challenged in view of the possibilities of breeding and of mutations created by exposure to radioactivity.

4. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (t); see above, comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara.(n).

5. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

6. Article 47, para. 2, first sentence.

7. Article 20, para. 1, subparas. (b) and (d), article 25, article 29, para. 3 and article 30, para. 2, subpara.(a).

8 Article 4 in connexion with the definitions of "poppy" and "poppy straw" in article 1.

9 Neubauer, D and Mothes K., Ober Papaver Bracteaturn in PlantaMedica (Stuttgart), vol. 11 (1963), pp. 387-391.

10.  Thebaine, being toxic, can itself not be misused; it was included in Schedule I because it is "convertible" (article 3, para. 3, subpara. (iii) into such "drugs" as hydrocodone, oxycodone and thebacon (listed in Schedule I) , and codeine and dihydrorgdemne (listed in Schedule 11).

11 This plant also contains some thebaine; United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics, op. cit., p. 70.

12. United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Narcotics, op. cit., p. 33.

13. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

14. The 1953 Protocol also uses the term "mowing" in its definition (article 1): 'Poppy straw' means all parts of the poppy after mowing (except the seeds) from which narcotics can be extracted."

15. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j); the "concentrate of poppy straw" which is listed in Schedule I and is thus a "drug", is not "poppy straw".

16. See above, foot-note 7.

17. The 1953 Protocol (article 1) expressly states in its definition of "opium" that it includes raw opium, medicinal opium and prepared opium; the 1912 Convention (introductory paragraphs of chapters 1, 11 and III) defined "raw opium" "prepared opium" and "medicinal opium"; the 1925 Convention (article 1) and the 1931 Convention (article 1, para. 3) define "raw opium" and "medicinal opium". The Single Convention defines separately (article 1, para. 1, subpara. (o)) "medicinal opium". See also article 4 of the 1948 Protocol.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (s)
(s) "Preparation" means a mixture, solid or liquid, containing a drug.

Commentary

1. The earlier narcotics treaties use the term "preparation", but do not define it. The definition of subparagraph (s) appears to exclude gaseous mixtures containing a "drug". I It cannot be excluded that some gaseous preparations will in the future come to have practical importance. The problem which would arise could be handled by an amendment to the Single Convention, deleting from the definition of subparagraph (s) the words "solid or liquid". Such a revision could be accomplished by the simplified amendment procedure of article 47 2 if-as can be expected-no Party to the Single Convention objects. It is, however, suggested that such a gaseous preparation could also be placed under the regime of the Convention by separately including it, by operation of article 3, in Schedule I or 11, or I and IV, or by adding in the relevant Schedule words indicating that gaseous mixtures are included.

2. The regime governing preparations is described in article 2, paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Single Convention . 3

1. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

2. Para. 2, first sentence.

3. See also article 3, para, 4 and para. 6, introductory subparagraph, and subpara. (b), article 19, para. 1, subpara. (b), article 20, para. 1, subpara. (b), article 23, para. 2, subpara. (e), article 29, para. 2, subpara. (c) and article 30, para. 1, subpara. (b), clause (ii).

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (t)
(t) "Production" means the separation of opium, coca leaves, cannabis and cannabis resin from the plants from which they are obtained.

Commentary

1. The industrial activities by which drugs may be obtained have throughout the history of international narcotics control been distinguished from the agricultural operations by which this can be done, different terms being applied to these two classes of operations, the former being called ,'manufacture", the latter "production".' This distinction was first made because it was for a long time considered unfeasible to subject the agricultural operations to a comprehensive system of control , 2 and has later been maintained because it is held that the regime to be applied to agricultural operations must be different from that governing industrial activities.

2. The word "production" by itself, in its ordinary meaning does not indicate that it refers only to agriculture, and has not infrequently been used in documents of intergovernmental organs dealing with narcotic drugs as a synonym of the word (industrial) "manufacture"; it is however consistently employed in the Single Convention to designate only the separation of agricultural products from the plants from which they are obtained.

3. Only four substances, namely the coca leaf, cannabis, cannabis resin and opium which are directly obtained by a separation from plants, i.e. from the coca bush, cannabis plant and opium poppy respectively are entered in Schedule I and thus are "drugs" 3 within the meaning of the Single Convention; no such substance appears in Schedule 11. The term "Production" has therefore been limited to apply to the separation of these four drugs from three plants just mentioned. Delegates to the Plenipotentiary Conference which adopted the Single Convention were undoubtedly aware of the theoretical possibility that some other substances obtained by separation from other plants might in the future be found to have such dangerous properties as to justify their addition to Schedule I or 11 by operation of article 3, and thus become subject to the control regime applicable to "drugs" in the Schedule in question. It could not, however, be foreseen which plants would yield such substances, and whether the regime applicable to the opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis plant would be suitable for the possibly quite different circumstances of cultivation and growth of these additional plants.

4. The separation of "drugs" from other plants than the opium poppy, cannabis plant and coca bush would therefore not be "production", but 11 manufacture" within the meaning of the Single Convention, and consequently would not be subject to the provisions relating to "production", but rather to those governing "manufacture". The same would be the case of other "drugs" than opium, cannabis, cannabis resin and coca leaf which hypothetically might be obtained by separation from the opium poppy, cannabis plant or coca bush . 4

5. The separation of "poppy straw" from the opium poppy, and that of cannabis leaves not accompanied by the tops from the cannabis plant, are neither "production" nor "manufacture" because the straw and the leaves are not listed in Schedule I or 11 and therefore are not "drugs". They are, however, subject to the special rules expressly applicable to them. 5

6. The rules governing "production" can be found in article 2, paragraphs 6 and 7, article 4, paragraph (c), article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) and paragraph 3, article 22, article 23, article 24, article 25, paragraph 1, subparagraph(a), article 26, article 27, article 28, paragraphs I and 2, article 36, article 37, and article 49, paragraph 1, subparagraph(e), paragraph 2, subparagraphs(a) and (g), paragraph 3, paragraph 4, subparagraph (a), clauses (i) and (iii) and subparagraph (b) and paragraph 5.

1 See above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n), foot-notes 1-5.

2. The production of opium has first been subjected to a comprehensive control regime by the 1953 Protocol and the production of coca leaves, cannabis and cannabis resin by the Single Convention,

3. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

4. See above comments on article 1, para. 1, subparas. (n), (p), (q) and (r).

5. As regards poppy straw see above foot-note 7 of comments on subparas. (p), (q) and (r); article 28, para. 3 applies to cannabis leaves.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (u)
(u) "Schedule I", "Schedule II", "Schedule III" and Schedule IV" mean the correspondingly numbered fist of drugs or preparations annexed to this Convention, as amended from time to time in accordance with article 3.

Commentary

1. In addition to rules applying to particular plants I and substances, 2 the Single Convention contains provisions governing whole groups of substances and the mixtures containing them. These latter substances are called "drugs" 3 and the mixtures "preparations" . 4 All drugs are listed either in Schedule I or 11. Those included in Schedule 1, such as morphine, are subject to all rules applicable to "drugs" except article 2, paragraph 5; those in Schedule 11 such as codeine are exempted from some of these provisions. A few drugs listed in Schedule 1, such as heroin, are also included in Schedule IV. They are governed, in addition to all rules applicable to drugs in Schedule 1, by the provisions of article 2, paragraph 5. While preparations are generally controlled by the same regime as applies to the drug which they contain, 11 preparations listed in Schedule 111, whether or not they contain a drug in Schedule I or Schedule 11, fall under the provisions applying to drugs in Schedule 11, and are moreover exempted from some of them; e.g. a preparation "containing not more than 0.2 per cent of morphine calculated as anhydrous morphine base and compounded with one or more other ingredients in such a way that the drug cannot be recovered by readily applicable means or ina yield which would constitute a risk to public health". 6

2. The Single Convention thus distinguishes four groups of substances for which it provides four general regimes of differing strictness. The Schedule in which a drug or preparation is included determines the particular regime by which it is governed. For a general description of these four regimes, see article 2, paragraphs 1-5 and comments thereto.

3. Schedules 1, 11 and IV list "drugs", and Schedule III lists "preparations". A drug listed in Schedule IV must also be included in Schedule 1. 1 The "drugs" included in Schedules 1, 11 and IV are at present "pure" drugs, i.e. not mixtures containing a drug; but there appears to be no legal obstacle to placing in one of these Schedules, as appropriate, a preparation 8 containing a drug appearing in another Schedule. Such a mixture would for the purposes of the Single Convention become a "drug" different from the drug which it contains. If included in Schedule IV, it would also have to be added to Schedule 1.

4. The Schedules may be amended in a different way than the other parts of the Single Convention. A special procedure, that of article 3, is provided for their revision. Amendments of the Schedules, but not that of other sections of the Single Convention, can- become binding on Parties to that treaty 9 without their express or implied consent. 11

5. In addition to article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (j) and (u), the following provisions use the term "Schedule": article 2, paragraphs 1-5; article 3, paragraphs I and 3 to 6; article 8, paragraph (a), article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b); article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b); article 21, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b); article 30, paragraph 2, sub paragraph (b), clause (ii) and paragraph 6; article 31, paragraph 16 and article 39.

1. Opium poppy, coca bush and cannabis plant.

2. Opium, coca leaf, cannabis and cannabis resin which, being listed in Schedule 1, are also subject to the general rules applicable to drugs in Schedule 1, and poppy straw and cannabis leaves, subject only to the rules specially applicable to them.

3.  Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

4 Article 1, para. 1, subpara.(s).

5 For exceptions, see article 2, paras. 3 and 4; see also foot-note 3 to comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara.(s).

6 Entry in Schedule III as amended by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs under article 3, at its twenty-first session; Commission on Narcotic Drugs, report on the twenty-first session, para. 68, document E/4294,Official Records of the Economic and Social Council, Forty-second Session, Supplement No. 2.

7 In order to be a "drug" a substance must be listed either in Schedule I or 11 (Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j) it would not make sense to list in Schedule 11 a drug in Schedule IV because it would be subject to all provisions applicable to drugs in Schedule I and thus could not enjoy the exemptions which are the reason for listing a drug in Schedule 11 (article 2, para. 5).

8 I.e. a mixture containing a drug, i.e. a substance listed either in Schedule I or 11.

9 For the procedure of amending the Single Convention see article 47, which could hypothetically also be applied to the Schedules.

10. Article 47.

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (v)
(v) "Secretary-General" means the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Commentary

The Single Convention confers upon the Secretary-General two different types of functions: those relating to the implementation of the international control regime (control functions), and those of a "ministerial" character, i.e. relating to signatures, ratifications, accessions, reservations, territorial application and amendments. He is in particular also the depositary of the Single Convention. I His ministerial functions are laid down in that part of the Convention which contains the "final" or "formal clauses", i.e. articles 40-51, 2 except article 49 3 which provides for some modifications of the control regime prescribed in the main body of the treaty, i.e. in articles 2 to 39. In view of his control functions provided for in the main body of the treaty 4 and in article 49, 5 the Secretary-General must be considered to be one of the control organs of the international narcotics regime, although he is not listed among such organs in article 5. 6 He is, in particular, responsible for furnishing the secretariat services of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and of the International Narcotics Control Board . 7 Those of the Board are subject to arrangements which the Economic and Social Council is required to make, in consultation with the Board, in order to ensure the full technical independence of that organ in carrying out its functions. 8

1. Being the administrator of the "archives of the United Nations"; last para. of the Single Convention

2. Article 40, paras. 2 and 3; article 42, article 43, paras. I and 2, article 44, para. 2, article 46, paras. I and 2, article 47, para. 1, introductory subparagraph, article 50, para. 3 and article 51; see also article 49, para. 3, subpara. (a) and para. 4, subparas. (a) and (b).

3 The Secretary-General is referred to as having control functions in para. 3, subpara. (a) and in para. 4, subpara. (a), clause (iii) and para, (b).

4 Article 3, paras. 1, 2, 7 and 8, subparas. (a) and (b), article 15, para. 2, article 16 and article 18, para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

5. See foot-note 3; see also article 43, paras. I and 2.

6. Article 5 headed "The International Control Organs" lists only the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the International Narcotics Control Board; but the General Assembly, in view of article 7, and the Economic and Social Council, in view of article 3, para. 8, article 7, article 9, para. 2, article 14, para. 2, article 15, para. I and article 24, para. 2, subpara. (b), are also undoubtedly "control organs" of the system. The "Secretariat" was referred to as one of the international control organs in section 6 of the first draft of the Single Convention, prepared by the United Nations Secretariat, document E/CN.7/AC3/3, United Nations publication, Sales No. 1951.XI.13.

7. Article 16.

8.Article 9, para. 2.

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraphs (w) and (x)
(w) "Special stocks" means the amounts of drugs held in a country or territory by the government of such country or territory for special Government purposes and to meet exceptional circumstances; and the expression "special purposes" shall be construed accordingly. (x) "Stocks" means the amounts of drugs held in a country or territory and intended for:
(i) Consumption in the country or territory for medical and scientific purposes,
(ii) Utilization in the country or territory for the manufacture of drugs and other substances, or
(iii) Export; but does not include the amounts of drugs held in the country or territory,
(iv) By retail pharmacists or other authorized retail distributors and by institutions or qualified persons in the duly authorized exercise of therapeutic or scientific functions, or
(v) As "special stocks,,.

Commentary

1. The terms "stocks and "special stocks" of the Single Convention correspond to the term "reserve stocks" and "Government stocks" of the 1931 Convention. I The 1931 Convention defines as "reserve stocks" the stocks required:
(i) For the normal domestic consumption of the country or territory in which they are maintained,
(ii) For conversion I in that country or territory, and 
(iii) For export.
The term "Government stocks" was defined by that Convention as "stocks kept under Government control for the use of the Government to meet exceptional circumstances".

2. At the time of the adoption of the 1931 Convention, most Governments did not hold in stock drugs destined for normal civilian consumption, but only for military and emergency purposes. The terms "Government stocks", "government purposes" 3 and "use of the Government" therefore conveyed the idea of relation to military purposes and to "exceptional circumstances" such as epidemics. But since then, a considerable number of countries have become socialist and many more have adopted governmental ("socialist") systems of medical services. In the world as a whole the terms "Government stocks", "use of the Government" and "Government purposes" have acquired a new meaning; they no longer exclude the normal civilian consumption, as they still did inmost countries in 193 1. The authors of the Single Convention found it necessary therefore to employ the term "special stocks" instead of the earlier term "Government stocks", and the phrase "special Government purposes" instead of the phrases "use of the Government" 4 or "Government purposes".

3. It will be noted that the Single Convention excludes 6 drugs held by retail outlets from its definition of "stocks", while the 1931 Convention does not expressly do the same in regard to its corresponding term "reserve stocks". I The League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs 8 recommended, however, that the term "reserve stocks" should be taken to mean only the stocks maintained by manufactures and wholesalers. 9 The Permanent Central Board 10 also recommended that Governments take the same view. 11

4. The meaning of the phrase "special purposes" is not made quite clear in subparagraph (w). The phrase is used in article 20, paragraph 4, where the context shows that its meaning is the same as that of the words "special Government purposes and to meet exceptional circumstances". 12 Moreover this paragraph applies the phrase only to drugs imported or procured within the country by the Government and coming under its control. The phrase is also used with the same meaning in article 12, paragraph 4, article 13, paragraph 4 and article 21, paragraph 1, subparagraph (e). The Board interprets the words "special purposes" in the same way. 13 See also below, comments on article 20, paragraph 4.

5. The term "special Government purposes" is understood to "include in particular drugs procured for the use of the armed forces". It does not include the purpose of meeting "exceptional circumstances", 11 since this phrase is used separately in the definition of subparagraph (w). It will be noted that the definition of stocks in subparagraph (x) does not exclude stocks held by the Government other than "special stocks". 15 The term "special Government purposes" does not include "the normal needs of the civilian population". 16 Since Parties to the Single Convention are not required to furnish statistical returns 11 respecting "special stocks", the contrary interpretation would remove stocks held by the Government and required for normal civilian needs from the scope of their obligation to furnish to the Board annual statistics on their stocks of drugs. 11 Such an interpretation would result in a considerable weakening of the international narcotics regime as it existed before the Single Convention, 19 which was not the intention of the Plenipotentiary Conference. Moreover, to apply the phrase "special Government purposes" to the normal needs of the civilian population could not be reconciled with the ordinary meaning of the word "special". It may be concluded that the phrase "special Government purposes" can cover all purposes other than the normal needs of the civilian population and those "to meet exceptional circumstances". In practice the phrase is generally synonymous with "military purposes".

6. The expression "exceptional circumstances'' is meant to cover such catastrophic events as large-scale epidemics and major earthquakes . 2 11 Since the term "special stocks" refers only to drugs held by the Government, it does not include stocks not held by the Government even if they are intended "for special Government purposes and to meet exceptional circumstances". Stocks held by a private business man with the intention of keeping them for sale to the Government for military needs and emergency requirements are not "special stocks" within the meaning of subparagraph (w), but "stocks" as defined in subparagraph (x).

7. It is, however, not necessary that the "special stocks" "held" by the Government be technically owned by it. The Spanish text uses the words "en poder del gobierno" (meaning "in the power of the Government") for the English words "held... by the Government ". 21 While ownership by the Government is not necessarily required, the power which the sovereign has over everything in its territory (eminent domain) is of course not sufficient. The "special stocks" must be under the control of the Government in such a way that it can at discretion dispose of them for "special Government purposes" or "to meet special circumstances", or can withdraw from them drugs for the needs of the civilian population whether by sale to a private trader or otherwise. 11 Drugs so withdrawn would of course cease to be a part of the "special stocks".

8. The Single Convention requires Governments to furnish much more limited information on "special stocks"" than on other stocks, 24 as did the 1931 Convention in respect of "Government stocks" 25 and the 1925 Convention in regard to stocks held by the Government for Government purposes. 26 This distinction was motivated by the desire to protect confidential information which might have military value. That stocks held "to meet exceptional circumstances", i.e. to provide for catastrophic conditions, have been given the same privileged position as military stocks may be explained by the fact that the armed forces very often furnish relief in such situations, with supplies (including drugs) taken from stocks stored for their own use. This motivation of the distinction between "stocks" and "special stocks", like that between the corresponding provisions of the earlier narcotics treaties, may also indicate why only stocks held by the Government, and not those under the control of a private business man even if intended for the armed forces, enjoy this privileged position. It has apparently been assumed that stocks held by private business men will generally not involve significant military secrets.

9. In view of what has been said above, the term "consumption" in subparagraph (x) clause (i) not only includes the "normal" consumption of the civilian population, but also that of the armed forces as well as the increased consumption in "exceptional circumstances", i.e. under catastrophic conditions, provided always that the stocks in question are not held by the Government. The term "normal" qualifying the word "consumption" in the definition of the term "reserve stocks" in the 1931 Convention has not been taken over in the Single Convention.

10. Only those drugs held for "consumption" which are intended for consumption "for medical and scientific purposes" are to be included in the stocks as defined in subparagraph (x). This limitation is not contained in the definition of "reserve stocks" in the 1931 Convention, nor in that of the draft prepared by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and used by the Plenipotentiary Conference as working document. 21 The words "for medical and scientific purposes" appear to have been inserted to indicate that the obligation of Parties to the Single Convention to supply information refers only to legal stocks, and not to those held by illicit traffickers and thus unknown to the Governments. Legal stocks intended for consumption are in fact generally held only for medical and scientific purposes as the Single Convention requires; 28 but Parties which under the terms of article 49 temporarily permit the quasi-medical use of opium, opium smoking, coca leaf chewing or the use of cannabis drugs 29 for non-medical purposes are under an obligation to furnish separate statistical information, inter alia, on the "stocks" of these drugs held for nonmedical consumption. 3' The "stocks" which are the object of this obligation are strictly speaking not "stocks" within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x), since the consumption for which they are intended is neither medical nor scientific. 31

11. The stocks in respect of which Parties authorizing the non-medical use of drugs have to furnish annual estimates under article 49, paragraph 3, subparagraph (b) are also not "stocks" within the meaning of the definition of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x).

12. Parties which use the coca leaves for the preparation of a flavouring agent for beverages but which destroy the extracted alkaloids must also annually furnish in regard to such leaves separate estimates and statistical information, including estimates of the stocks which they intend to hold and statistical information on the stocks which they actually hold. 32 These stocks of coca leaves not intended for medical and scientific purposes are equally not "stocks" within the meaning of this term in article 1.

13. The use of the term "consumption" in clause (i) is consistent with its definition in article 1, paragraph 2. The word is not used in its ordinary meaning, but denotes for the purposes of the Single Convention the transfer of drugs from the wholesale (including manufacturing) phase of the drug economy to the retail stage. Drugs transferred to this stage are considered to be consumed and are consequently excluded from "stocks" under article, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x), clause (iv).

14. The term "other substances" in clause (ii) includes drugs not covered by this Convention, such as nalorphine or apomorphine, 33 but would also apply to any drugs which eventually come to be "commonly used in industry for other than medical and scientific purposes" and which would have to be "denatured" or subjected to such other means of treatment as would ensure that they could not be abused or in practice be recovered in a form liable to abuse. See below comments to article 2, paragraph 9.

15. The term includes also preparations in Schedule 111, 34 but not other preparations of drugs. It covers all substances whose manufacture would make the drugs used in the process go outside the statistical accounting system of the Single Convention. The drugs contained in manufactured preparations other than preparations in Schedule III must, however, continue to be counted in calculating the figures on stocks as long as the preparations are not transferred to the retail level of the drug economy, 15 i.e. are not "consumed". 11 The drugs contained in preparations in Schedule III are on the other hand not to be included in the computation of "stocks". 3'

16. The French text uses the words "a la fabrication et a la preparation'' and the Spanish text similarly the words "para la fabricacion y preparacion" for the English words "for the manufacture" in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x) clause (ii). The meaning of all three texts is the same. The words "preparation" and "preparacion" were apparently added because the drafters of the French and Spanish versions were taking into account the fact that the term "other substances" was intended to include preparations in Schedule 111. It will also be recalled that the definition of "manufacture" in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (n) 38 does not include the making of other substances than drugs.

17. The Board holds that quantities held in bonded warehouses, free ports or free zones of a country or territory should be included in the calculation of the stocks of that country or territory, but not drugs passing in transit through the country or territory and placed temporarily in such a warehouse, port or zone, pending the continuation of their transportation. 39 The same must be assumed in regard to "special stocks", i.e. in regard to drugs held by the Government for "special Government purposes and to meet exceptional circumstances" and placed temporarily in a bonded warehouse, free port or free zone. While Parties to the Single Convention are not bound to report to the Board the size of their special stocks , 40 they might be required to compute their amount in order to be able to furnish to the Board an exact estimate of the quantities which might be necessary for addition to their special stocks. 41 in making this computation Governments should of course apply the rules of the Single Convention and if necessary the above-mentioned views of the Board on the legal position of drugs temporarily placed in warehouses, free ports or free zones.

18. By the provision of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x), clause (iv) those drugs which under the statistical system of the Single Convention are considered to have been "consumed" are excluded from the calculation of "stocks" .42 They must be excluded to prevent double counting, since the amounts transferred from the wholesale level of the drug economy to its retail phase are reported by Governments in their statistical returns on consumption . 41 Considerations of statistical convenience were, however, also a factor in the exclusion from "stocks" of the quantities held by retail outlets.

19. It follows from the foregoing that all drugs held in a country or territory for whatever purposes other than (a) "special stocks", (b) those held by retail outlets and (c) those intended for non-medical consumption are "stocks" within the meaning of subparagraph (x). Quantities held for temporarily authorized non-medical consumption 44 as well as coca leaves intended only for preparation of a flavouring agent and whose alkaloids are to be destroyed 45 must, however, separately be reported. Although they are not "stocks" as defined in subparagraph (x), they must be considered to be "stocks" for the purpose of article 27, paragraph 2 and article 49, paragraph 3, subparagraph (b) 411 which require Parties to the Single Convention which use coca leaves for the manufacture of a flavouring agent (and destroy the alkaloids), as well as those temporarily authorizing the non-medical use of drugs pursuant to article 49, paragraph 1, to report inter alia annually to the Board the stocks of drugs actually held specifically for such uses as well as those which they intend to hold by the end of the next year. See also below comments on article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (c), article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (f), and article 49, paragraph 3, subparagraph (b).

20. The definition of "special stocks" in subparagraph (w), as well as the definition of stocks in subparagraph (x), take into account that Governments may treat a part of their national area as a separate entity for purposes of their narcotics regime, i.e. as a "territory" within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y), and consequently may hold in such a territory "special stocks" and "stocks" which are separate from those of the metropolitan country or of other "territories" of that country.

21. For provisions relating to stocks and special stocks, see article 12 paragraph 4, article 13, paragraph 4, article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (c) and (d) and paragraph 2, article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (f) and paragraph 4 article 21, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (d) and (e) and paragraph 2, article 23, paragraph 2, subparagraph (e), article 27, paragraph 2 and article 49, paragraph 3, subparagraph (b).

22. For provisions relating to stocks, but not using this term, see article 29, paragraph 3 and article 30, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a).

1. The 1925 Convention does not contain specific provisions directly applying to "Government stocks". Like the Single Convention, it uses the single word "stocks" for what the 1931 Convention calls "reserve stocks". it requires Governments to furnish statistical information only on stocks "in the hands ofwholesalers or held by the Government for consumption in the country forother than Government purposes" (article 22, para. 1, subpara. (c)), i.e. only on what the Single Convention calls "stocks" and the 1931 Convention calls "reserve stocks", excluding what the 1931 Convention names "Government stocks" and the Single Convention "Special stocks". The 1931 Convention does not, however, expressly exclude stocks held by retailers from its term "reserve stocks", although this was in practice done by international control organs as well as by Governments. The 1953 Protocol gives its term "stocks" about the same meaning as the 1925 and 1931 Conventions gave to their terms "stocks" and "reserve stocks" respectively. It expressly excludes stocks held by retailers, but not opium held by, or under the control of the Government, for Government purposes other than "military purposes" (article 1). The 1912 Convention does not use the term "stocks" (article 21).

2 Le. corresponding to what the Single Convention calls "utilization ... for the manufacture of drugs and other substances"; see also above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

3. Article 22, para. 1, subpara. (c) and para. 3 of the 1925 Convention.

4. Article 1, para. 4 of the 1931 Convention.

5 Article 22, para. 1, subpara. (c) of the 1925 Convention.

6. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (x), clause (iv).

7. The 1925 Convention did exclude drugs held by retailers from the information it required Governments to furnish on "stocks"; article 22, para. 1, subpara. (c); see above foot-note 1.

8. The Advisory Committee was the predecessor of the present Commission on Narcotic Drugs. It had been established by a resolution adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations on 15 December 1920; League of Nations, Records of the First Assembly, Plenary Meetings (Geneva, 1920) pp. 538-539. The Advisory Committee had been made responsible by the unamended versions of the pre-war narcotics treaties with those functions which were transfered to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs by the amendment of these treaties by the 1946 Protocol.

9. League of Nations, Model Administrative Codes to the International Opium Conventions of 1925 and 1931, p. 4, (League of Nations, document C.774.M.365, Sales No. 1932.XI.8).

10 See above comments to article 1, para. 1, introductory subparagraph and subpara. (a).

11 Statistical Form of the Permanent Central Board B (L), Note 6; the Form is reproduced in the Commentary on the 1931 Convention as Annex 1.

12 This view is supported by the text of article 22, para. 3 of the 1925 Convention whose substance is resumed by article 20, para. 4 of the Single Convention. The term "Government purposes" as used by the 1925 Convention was interpreted to mean "use of the armed forces of the Country or to meet exceptional circumstances" (Form C/I of the Permanent Central Board, 12 edition (November 1962), instruction No. 6).

13 Forms of the Board: A/S (5th edition, November 1969), instruction 12, and C/S (4th edition, November 1969), note (c) to table 11, p. 9.

14 As the term "Government purposes" used by the 1925 Convention did; see above foot-note 12.

15. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (x), clause (v).

16. Form C/S, referred to in foot-note13, note b to Table11, p. 9.

17. Article 20, para. 4.

18. Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (f) and para. 2, subpara. (a).

19. The term "stocks" as used in the1925 Convention and the term "reserve stocks" in the1931 do not exclude stocks held by the Government for normal needs of the civilian population.

20. Form C/S, referred to in foot-note13, note c to table 11, p. 9.

21. The French text employs the words"detenues ... par le gouvernement

22. Article20, para. 4; the 1931 Convention (article 1, para. 4) defines "Government stocks" as stocks "kept under Government control"; the 1953 Protocol excludes from its turn "stocks" opium "stocks" "held by, or under the control of, the Government for military purposes."

23. See article 19, para. 1, subpara.(d) and article 20, para. 4.

24. Article 19, para. 1, subpara.(c) and article 20, para. 1, subpara.

25. Article 5, para. 2, subparas. (c) and (d).

26. Article 22, para. 1, subpara. (c) and para. 3; see also the 1953 Protocol, article 8, para. 1. subparas. (c) and(d) and article 9, para. 1, subparas.(c) and(d) and article 9, para. 1, subpara. (b).

27 Document E/CN7/AC3/9, reproduced inRecords, vol. II. pp. I et seq., see article 1, para. (z).

28 Article 4, para. (c).

29 i.e. cannabis, cannabis resin, extracts and tinctures of cannabis; article 49, para. 1, subpara. (d).

30 Article 49, para. 3, subpara.(b).

31 Such a special exception from the obligation of limiting the possession of drugs exclusively to medical and scientific purposes" is authorized by the text of article 4, para.(c).

32 Article 27 ' para. 2 together with article 19, para. 1, subpara.(c) and article 20, para. 1, subpara. (f).

33 Made from "drugs" (article 1, para. 1, subpara. (i)), see above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara.(n).

34 See below comments on article 2, para. 4, article 19, para. 1, subpara.(b) and article 20, para. 1, subpara.(b).

35 Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (x) (clause (iv)); see also article 2, para. 3 and comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara.(n), in particular foot-note 38.

36 Article 1, para. 2.

37 Article 2, para. 4; see also Form C/S of Board, 4th edition (November 1969), Instruction No. 3.

38 See above comments on this subparagraph.

39 Form C/S (4th edition, November 1969) of the Board note b to table 11, p. 9; this accords with the Board's understanding of the terms "import" and "export"; see above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (m). do 

40Article 20, para. 1; see also para. 4. 41

41. Article 19, para. 1, subpara. (d).

42 Article 1, para. 2.

43 Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (c).

44 Article 49, para. 1.

45 Article 27, para. 2.

46 Together with article 19, para. 1, subpara. (c) and article 20, para. 1, subpara (f ).

 

Paragraph 1, subparagraph (y)
(y) "Territory" means any part of a State which is treated as a separate entity for the application of the system of import certificates and export authorizations provided for in article 31. This definition shall not apply to the term "territory" as used In articles 42 and 46

Commentary

1. According to subparagraph (y), the term "territory" is employed in the Single Convention in two different meanings, in an administrative sense as defined in the subparagraph and used everywhere except in articles 42 and 46, and in another sense in those two articles. This second meaning required by the context may be called"political". It must, however, be borne in mind that all terms defined in article I have the meaning given to them in their definitions only where it is not otherwise expressly indicated or where the context does not otherwise require. I As will be pointed out further below, the term "territory" is also, according to the context, used in different senses in some other provisions than articles 42 and 46. The political notion I appears in earlier narcotics treaties a which contain "territorial clauses". I The administrative term appears first in the 1931 Convention. 5 The 1925 Convention does not expressly provide for the possibility of dividing the area of a contracting State into separate administrative units for purposes of international narcotics control, but Parties to that Convention have in fact treated parts of their national area as separate entities for the application of the system of import certificates and export authorizations established by Chapter V of that Convention. 6 The 1953 Protocol provides for "territories" in the administrative sense . 7 It gives a definition of the term "territory" in this meaning which is substantively and nearly literally the same as that of the Single Convention.

2. The narcotics treaties are only incidentally concerned with the economic aspects of the domestic and international drug trade. The provisions governing imports, exports and the transit of international shipments through third countries 8 were not adopted for economic reasons, but because such international transactions have been considered to constitute particularly dangerous situations in which drugs can be diverted into illicit channels; but shipments which are economically exports and imports are not the only ones that are exposed to such a danger, but also those consignments from one part to another non-contiguous part of the same State which pass over the open sea or through another State. It is the similarity of the risk of diversion which has been instrumental in moving the authors of the narcotics treaties to provide for the application of the import certificate and export authorization system not only to shipments from one State to another State, but also to some consignments dispatched from one part to another part of the same State, to combine both of these categories under the terms "import and export" and to introduce the institution of "territory" in the administrative meaning of subparagraph (y). 9

3. There has been another reason for this. Territories separated from their metropolitan countries by the open sea or by the territory of other States have often considerable internal autonomy, generally including an independent separate administration of health and police matters, and thus of drug control. This internal organization is reflected in the treaty provisions allowing a Party to treat some part or parts of its national area as separate entities for purposes of international narcotics control.

4. The geographic and administrative conditions of narcotics control in different countries differ too much to make it feasible to establish binding treaty rules which would determine what kind of area should be treated by a party as a territory within the meaning of the definition of subparagraph (y). In any event, it would be extremely difficult to obtain general agreement on such rules. The authors of the Single Convention have therefore left it to the discretion of each Party to decide in the light of its particular national conditions whether it wishes to make provision for "territories" as defined in subparagraph (y), and which parts of its area it desires to treat as such; but if a Party permits the shipment of drugs from one to another of its areas through a foreign country, it must apply the import certificate and export authorization system to such consignments and therefore treat the two areas as two different territories or as parts of two different territories within the meaning of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y), unless the drugs are dispatched by aircraft which does not make a landing in the foreign country. 10

5. The Single Convention also expressly foresees that Parties may change the division of their national area or parts of their area into "territories", particularly by dividing one of their "territories" into two or more, or by consolidating two or more of them into one. It is provided that Parties must notify to the Secretary-General of the United Nations such administrative actions. 11

6. Taking into account the existence of customs unions and anticipating the establishment of more such associations, the Plenipotentiary Conference also included in the Single Convention a provision allowing two or more Parties to notify the Secretary-General that they constitute a single "territory" as result of the establishment of a customs union between them. The provisions regarding the two types of notifications just mentioned state that they are made for the purpose of article 19, 20, 21 and 31.

7. These articles require that they be applied by a Party separately to its different "territories" I'll (to the metropolitan country and to each of its "territories"). Article 31 contains special provisions relating to the international trade in drugs and poppy straw 13 and in particular the rules of the system of import certificates and export authorizations; article 19 requires Parties to furnish estimates of their requirements of drugs, article 20 provides for the statistical returns which Parties must furnish to the International Narcotics Control Board and article 21 contains the rules by which the maximum quantities of drugs are determined which Parties (i.e. each of their "territories" separately) may annually obtain by manufacture and/or import. These rules also authorize the Board to require Parties to discontinue exports of drugs to any country or territory whose imports have exceeded certain limits. 14

8. The implementation of these four articles is closely interrelated; but there are other provisions which expressly or by their nature require that Parties apply them separately to each of their territories. Article 18 paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) stipulates that each Party should furnish to the Secretary-General an annual report on the working of the Single Convention within each of its territories. Article 17 which obligates Parties to maintain a special administration for the purpose of applying the Single Convention does not expressly indicate that it must be separately implemented in each of a Party's territories, but such separate administrations will generally be the consequence of the obligation to implement separately basic provisions of the Single Convention. 15

9. It is therefore suggested that Governments should apply the same territorial arrangement in carrying out not only articles 19, 20, 21 and 31 but also those other provisions where separate implementation in regard to different territories is required by the terms of the Single Convention or may be advisable for other reasons. An unnecessarily complex administrative situation may otherwise arise.

10. Article 43 provides that Parties "may" make the notifications under consideration. It appears however that Parties "may" make the administrative changes in question, i.e. have full discretion in respect to them, but must make the notifications if they wish to carry out the provisions of the Single Convention in accordance with the new territorial arrangements. Any other interpretation would be incompatible with paragraph 3 which stipulates that any of these notifications "shall take effect on I January of the the year following the year in which the notification was made". It follows that the changes in the territorial arrangements do not take effect for the purposes of the Single Convention unless the notifications concerned are made in time.

11. As long as its territorial organization existing at the time of its becoming a Party 16 continues, a State is not required by any express provision of the Single Convention to notify the Secretary-General of which parts of its area it treats as territories as defined in subparagraph (y). The provision of article 43, paragraph I regarding the notification of territorial arrangements appears to apply only to changes in the situation as it existed at that time. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs may however require Parties to furnish to the Secretary-General information on the original territorial organization if it considers this as being necessary for the performance of its functions. 11 The Commission may in particular insert a question to this effect in the form which it is entitled to prepare and which Governments must use in furnishing to the SecretaryGeneral their annual reports on the working of the Single Convention "within each of their territories."

12. The Secretary-General and the Board would also in any event obtain the information on the territorial organization of those Parties which send in separate annual reports for their different territories or which carry out their obligation to supply annual estimates 19 of their drug requirements and statistical returns 10 "for each of their territories". The information which Parties must furnish "on the names and addresses of governmental authorities empowered to issue export and import authorizations or certificates " 21 Will also often indicate their territorial organization for purposes of narcotics control.

13. Members of a customs union, on the other hand, which wish to constitute a single "territory" for the purpose of implementing articles 19, 20, 21, and 31 of the Single Convention must, under article 43, paragraph 2, notify the Secretary-General of such an arrangement in order to make it effective under that treaty even if it already existed at the time of their becoming Parties.

14. The administrative term as defined in subparagraph (y) applies to a part of a State treated asseparate entity for the application of the system of import certificates and export authorizations whether or not this part is the metropolitan county, i.e. the "territory" in which the Central Government has its seat; but as defined it does not apply to a State whose total area forms a single entity for the application of the above-mentioned system. The context requires however in several places of the Single Convention that the term "territory" be understood to cover not only parts of a State treated as separate entities for purposes of narcotics control, including metropolitan countries so treated, but also undivided States forming single entities; see article 4, paragraph (a), 22 article 12, paragraph 3; article 18, paragraph 1, su paragraph (a), article 19, paragraph 1, introductory subparagraph and paragraph 2; article 20, paragraph I introductory subparagraph and paragraph 3; article 3 1, paragraph 2; 112 article 43, paragraph I; and article 49, paragraph 1, introductory subparagraph and paragraph 2, subparagraph (a).

15. In several other places where the term "territory" appears in association with the word "country" it is clear that it does not cover undivided States, but only parts of States treated as separate administrative entities as defined in subparagraph (y), including those parts which contain the seat of the central Government (i.e. "metropolitan countries"), an undivided State being called "country"; see article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (w) and (x), introductory clause and clauses (i) and (ii); article 12, paragraphs 2 23 and 4; article 14, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) and paragraph 2; article 20, paragraph 4; article 21, paragraph 1, introductory subparagraph, and paragraph 4, subparagraph (a) and subparagraph (b), introductory clause and clause (i); article 24, paragraph 4, subparagraph (a), introductory clause; and article 31, paragraph 1, introductory subparagraph and subparagraphs (a) and (b), paragraph 5, paragraph 7, subparagraph (a), paragraph 12 and paragraph 14. 24 In all these provisions the term "territory" is employed in the sense of the definition of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y). This is also the case in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (m) where the word "territory" does not appear in association with the term "country".

16. It may be noted in this place that the word "country" is employed in a number of articles, alone, i.e. without association with the term "territory". It denotes in these provisions "State as a whole" whether divided in territories as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y) or not; see article 24, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a), clause (ii) and subparagraph (b), clause (iii), paragraph 3 and paragraph 4, subparagraph(b); article 31, paragraphs 9 and 11; 25 article 32, paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 ; 26 and article 36, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a), clause (i).

17. Under the express terms of article 43, paragraph 2, the area of several States which form a customs union may constitute one "territory" as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y).

18. It was also the understanding of the Plenipotentiary Conference that an enclave of a State within the customs boundaries of another State surrounding it would for purposes of the Single Convention be administered as part of the surrounding State or of one of its "territories" within the definition of article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y). 21

19. The word "territory" may according to its context also mean "area of a State". It used in this sense in article 24, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) and paragraph 4, subparagraph (a), introductory clause; 28 article 3 1, paragraphs 10, 11 and 14, and article 36, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a), clause (iv). 29

20. Article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y) expressly states that its definition of the word "territory" does not apply to the use of this word in articles 42 and 46. The meaning of "territory" as employed in these articles is nowhere expressly defined. The qualifying word "non-metropolitan" which is used in article 42 3 0 appears to indicate that the term "territory" in articles 42 and 46 applies to an area which is separated by the sea or by a third State from the motherland. 11 The phrase in article 42 referring to the term "for the international relations of which any Party is responsible " 31 shows moreover that a territory within the meaning of these articles must have some political identity different from that of the mother country. The same or a similar phrase is also used in the "territorial" clauses of a number of other treaties 33 in which the territories with which these clauses deal are understood to have such a separate identity.

21. Article 42 distinguishes two different categories of territories those to whom the Single Convention cannot be applied without their previous consent as required by their respective Constitution or that of the mother country concerned or by custom, and the others whose previous consent is not required. It applies different rules to each of these two groups.

22. A territory within the meaning of articles 42 and 46 may form one or more administrative territories as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (year it may also hypothetically be combined with one or more other territories in the sense of articles 42 and 46 to constitute a single administrative territory for purposes of narcotics control. It may however be assumed that a territory within the meaning of articles 42 and 46, particularly also one to which the Single Convention cannot be applied without its consent will as a rule also at the same time be a territory as defined in article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y). Its autonomous powers will include the police and health functions involved in narcotics control.

23. Article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (y) does not mention article 49, paragraph 2, subparagraph (b) as one of the provisions to which its definition does not apply. It appears however that the term "territory" used in the latter subparagraph has in view of its context the same meaning as in articles 42 and 46 . 34 See also below, comments on article 42.

 

1. Article 1, para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

2. Different terms have been used for different forms of "territories": possessions, colonies, protectorates, leased territories, overseas possessions, overseas territories under (the country's) sovereignty or authority, territories under suzerainty or mandate, territories for which (the Party) has international responsibility, non-self-governing, trust, colonial and other non-metropolitan territories for the international relations of which any Party is responsible. The Single Convention (article 42) uses the general phrase: "non-metropolitan territories for the international relations of which any Party is responsible".

3. All except the 1946 Protocol.

4. Article 23 of the 1912 Convention, article 39 of the 1925 Convention, article 26 of the 1931 Convention, article 18 of the 1936 Convention, article 8 of the 1948 Protocol and article 20 of the 1953 Protocol; see also article XIII of the 1925 Agreement and article V of the 1931 Agreement (referring only to "any territory over which it (the Party) exercises only a protectorate"); the territorial clauses were formerly often referred to as "colonial clauses".

5. See article 1, para. 4, articles 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15.

6. The system was applied by a number of States prior to the 1925 Convention, on the recommendation of the League of Nations Advisory Committee on the Traffic in opium and Other Dangerous Drugs. For the Advisory Committee, see above, comments on subparagraphs (w) and (x), foot-note 8.

7. Article I (definition), article 6, para. 3, articles 8, 9, 11, 12 and 19.

8 Chapter V of the 1925 Convention and article 31 of the Single Convention.

9 See above comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (m).

10. Article 31, paras. 6, 10, 11 and 14,

11. Articles 43 paras 1 see also page 3

12 The term "territory" as used in these provisions refers also to the metropolitan country; the term "country" (articles 20, 21 and 31) to a State whose area is not divided into "territories"; see below.

13 Poppy straw is not a "drug" within the meaning of article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j); see above comments on this subparagraph.

14 The Board may in such cases even require a Party to discontinue shipments from its metropolitan country to one of its territories or vice versa or from one of its territories to another; see below comments on article 21, para. 4.

15 Article 14 provides for measures by the Board to ensure the execution of provisions of the Single Convention. In acting under this article the Board must also base itself on the territorial organization indicated in the notifications under consideration, i.e. in its assumption that a "territory" has failed to carry out the provisions of the Single Convention (Article 14, para. 1, subpara. (a)) and in making a recommendation to impose an import and/or export embargo of drugs on a territory (Article 14, para. 2); see also article 12. paras. 2, 3 and 4'.

16 Article 41.

17 Article 18, para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

18 Article 18, para. 1, subpara. (a) and para. 2; Governments must also use a form prepared by the Commission in furnishing the other data which they are bound
to supply under article 18, para. 1, subparas (b)-(d) or any other information which the Commission may request as being necessary for the performance of its functions.

19. Article 19, particularly para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

20. Article 20, particularly para. 1, introductory subparagraph.

21. Article 18, para. I, subpara

22. The word "territories" could in this place also be understood to mean "areas". 

23. The term "territories" in this paragraph appears to be the one defined in subpara. (y) and not the one used in article 42. A "territory" within the meaning of article 42 can form a single territory as defined in subpara. (y) but could also be divided in two or more such territories.

24 The meaning of these provisions would however not be affected if the word "country" would be interpreted to cover an undivided State as well as the metropolitan country of a State divided for purposes of narcotics control.

25 See below, comments to article3 1, para. 11.

26 See below, comments on article32, para. 1.

27 Records, vol. 1, pp. 167 and170.

28 In the phrase "in the territory of"; in the phrase "from any country or territory" used in this clause the term "territory" has the administrative meaning defined in article 1, para. 1, subpara.(y).

29. See also foot-note19 above and the provisions to which it refers.

30 See also article 20 of the1953 Protocol.

31 Records, vol. 1, p. 167. Statement of the Legal Adviser of the Plenipotentiary Conference.

32 Or the equivalent phrase used in article46, para. I : "for which it (i.e. any Party) has international responsibility".

33 E.g. article 20 of the1953 Protocol; for the use of this phrase, see territorial clauses inMultilateral Treaties in Respect of which the Secretary-General Performs Depositary Functions, Annex: Final Clauses, document ST/LEG/SER.D/l, Annex, SupplementNo. 2 (31 December1969), United Nations publication, Sales No.E.70.V.4.

34 In view of the text of article 1, para. 1, subpara. (y) the term "territory" used in article 49, para. 2, subpara. (b) could also be understood to mean a "territory " as defined in article 1 which is a part of, or identical with a territory in the sense of article 42; this may however be a somewhat forced interpretation; both interpretations would have the same practical effect.

 

Paragraph 2
2. For the purposes of this Convention a drug shall be regarded as "consumed" when it has been supplied to any person or enterprise for retail distribution, medical use or scientific research; and "consumption" shall be construed accordingly.

Commentary

1. The words defined in this paragraph are given a meaning which corresponds to the sense in which even prior to the 1953 Protocol and the Single Convention Governments generally interpreted the term "consumption" for the purpose of carrying out their obligation to furnish statistical information. "Consumption" was not defined in the treaties preceding the 1953 Protocol. Parties to the 1925 Convention assumed the obligation to furnish annual statistics on the "consumption", other than for Government purposes, I of a number of narcotic drugs. 2 They used three different methods in order to obtain figures as close as possible to actual "consumption" as this term would be understood in its ordinary sense:

(a) Establishing the actual sales by retail pharmacists, I
(b) Establishing the quantities actually delivered by manufacturers or wholesalers to retail outlets, or
(c) Establishing the difference between
(aa) The sum of
(i) The quantities in stock in the hands of manufacturers and wholesalers (including Government monopolies) 4 at the beginning of the year.
(ii) The quantities manufactured or "produced" (harvested) as the case may be,
(iii) The quantities imported, and
(iv) The quantities confiscated from the illicit traffic and not destroyed, but released for licit purposes other than "Government purposes" during the year in question, and
(bb) The sum of
(i) The quantities in the hands of manufacturers and wholesalers (including Government mnopolies),5 at the end of the year,
(ii) The quantities utilized for the manufacture of other "drugs", of preparations for the export of which export authorizations were not required 6 and of uncontrolled substances, and
(iii) The quantities exported during the year in question.

The methods mentioned under (b) and (c) were sometimes used simultaneously, one checking the other. 1

2. Prior to the coming in operation of the 1953 Protocol and the Single Convention, the Permanent Central Board advised Governments to supply their "consumption" statistics as follows:

"Unless a Government has established a more exact method of calculatingconsumption, the Board recommends that in column I 8 should be reported the quantities supplied to pharmacists, doctors, dentists, veterinarians and to hospitals, dispensaries and similar health institutions both public and private, that have authority to supply narcotic drugs to patients. Quantities of drugs dispensed through a national health scheme would also figure in this column, regardless of the fact that the system is administered by the State.

"The figures in column I should not include amounts consumed in the form of exempted preparations. . .".9

3. Under the earlier narcotics treaties as well as under the Single Convention the international organs receive information only on the stocks held by manufacturers and wholesalers, and not on those in the hands of retail outlets. 10 They obtain also separate data on the quantities acquired by the various countries or territories by way of manufacture, production 11 and import, and by means of seizure from the illicit traffic and appropriation for legal purposes. They are also provided with information on the quantities which were disposed of in each country and territory by utilization for the manufacture of the other "drugs" 12 and substances, by exports and "consumption". "I If "consumption" were understood to denote "sales by retail pharmacists", a gap in the statistical system of the international narcotics regime would exist. The international organs would not know the quantities of drugs which passed from the wholesale level to the retail level of the drug economy and thus would not obtain a complete picture of the drug movements in the various countries and territories. They could not strike the balance which would show whether significant quantities of drugs were diverted from manufacture and wholesale trade into illicit channels. It is therefore suggested that of the three methods mentioned above as having been used in the calculation of "consumption" that described under (a) (actual sales by retail pharmacists), although more accurately reflecting the actual consumption by patients than the method outlined under (b) and described in greater detail in the Permanent Central Board's 14 recommendation, was inconsistent with the statistical system of the narcotics treaties which preceded the 1953 Protocol and the Single Convention. The gap just mentioned was closed by giving the term 11 consumption" on the amount of which Governments were required to furnish figures the meaning of transfer from the wholesale to the retail level of the national or territorial drug economy in question.

4. By knowing the quantities sold to retail outlets each year, the international organs can also obtain a reasonably accurate picture of the actual quantities used in medical, veterinary and dental practice. While the amount sold to retail outlets in a particular year may differ considerably from the quantity used up in the practice of the medical professions, i.e. from actual 11 consumption" as this term is ordinarily understood, the average annual sale during three to five years will be rather close to such consumption.

5. As the Single Convention also limits the information which Governments are required to furnish on "stocks" to that regarding drugs held by manufacturers and wholesalers,'-' it has to call for information from the Parties on the quantity of drugs transferred each year from the wholesale level to the retail level of their trade. This requirement is met by defining ,,consumption", on which Governments have to supply annual statistics, to mean such transfer. 16 By incorporating this definition in the Single Convention, the Plenipotentiary Conference accepted what had already been done in practice by Governments under the earlier narcotics treaties.

6. "Consumption" of preparations other than preparations in Schedule III is considered to be "consumption" of the "drugs" which they contain. Since the International Narcotics Control Board does not need separate data on the consumption of a "drug" and its preparations, 11 it inserted in the form which Governments must employ in making their annual statistical reports an instruction, requiring that the figures (including those on consumption) should cover the pure drug content of the drugs or preparations. "I The drugs contained in preparations in Schedule III which are "supplied to any person or enterprise for retail distribution, medical use or scientific research" (i.e. transferred from the wholesale level to the retail level of the drug economy) are, however, not counted in the computation of the "consumption" statistics. 19 Preparations listed in Schedule 111, and consequently the drugs which they contain, are never "consumed" within the meaning given to this term in article 1, paragraph 2. 10 The International Narcotics Control Board has advised to consider as "consumed"

"the amounts supplied for retail distribution, medical use or scientific research, to any person, enterprise or institute (retail pharmacists, other authorized retail distributors, institutions or qualified persons duly authorized to exercise the therapeutic or scientific functions: doctors, dentists, veterinarians, hospitals, dispensaries, and similar health institutions, both public and private; scientific institutes)".

The Board also added that

"quantities dispensed through a national health scheme should also be included" in the consumption figures, "regardless of the fact that the system is administered by the State". 21

It will be noted that this instruction of the Board under the Single Convention is essentially the same as that quoted above given by the Permanent Central Board under the earlier narcotics treaties.

7. The term "medical use" in paragraph 2 means only medical administration or dispensation and not personal "consumption" in the ordinary sense of this word.

8. It may be noted that the Single Convention sometimes applies the word "use" for consumption by individual patients or animals, i.e. for "consumption'' in its common meaning. See article 2, paragraph 5, article 4, subparagraph (c), article 32, paragraph 2, and article 49, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (a) and (d), paragraph 2, subparagraphs (d), (f), and (g) and paragraph 3, subparagraph (a).

9. The word "use" is, however, also employed in other meanings. 22 For the use of the term "consumed" in the meaning of the definition of article 1, paragraph 2, see article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) and article 21, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a); for the use of the word "consumption" in the same meaning see article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (x), clause (i) and article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (c).

10. For the meaning of the word "consuming" in article 9, paragraph 3, see below, comments on that paragraph.

1. See above comments on article 1, para. 1, subparas. (w) and (x).

2. Article 22, para. 1, subpara. (d); this obligation was extended to all drugs of Group I of the 1931 Convention by article 13, para. I of that treaty, and by the 1948 Protocol to additional drugs assimilated to drugs of Group I of the 1931 Convention; the 1912 Convention required Parties to furnish statistics as regards "the trade" in some narcotic drugs (article 21, para (b)). The figures supplied under the terms of this treaty also contained information an "consumption".

3 This method was occasionally used before the coming into force of the 1931 Convention; whether it was used later was not known to the Secretariat of the Permanent Central Board in 1966 (Doc.E/OB/W500, p. 3) nor is it known to the Secretariat of the International Narcotics Control Board at the time of this writing.

4 For other than "Government purposes"; see above comments on para. 1, subparas. (w) and (x).

5. For other than "Government purposes".

6. The class of these preparations under the earlier narcotics treaties corresponds to the category of preparations listed in Schedule III of the Single Convention, see article 8 together with article 4 of the 1925 Convention; article 13, para. 2, article 5, para. 2, subpara. (a), article 6, para. 1, subpara. (a), article 14, para. 3, clause (g) article 17, closing para. and article 22 of the 1931 Convention; and article 1, para. 4 of the 1948 Protocol, The preparations in this class have often loosely but inaccurately been called "exempted preparations".

7 Model Code, pp, 10 and 11; document of the Permanent Central (Opium) (Narcotics) Board E/OB/W500, pp. 2-3.

8. Headed "Consumption other than for Government purposes".

9. Form C/I of the Permanent Central Board, entitled "Annual Statistics of Consumption" (9th edition, November 1959), Instruction No. 4. 

10 See above comments on subparas (w) and (x)

11. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (t).

12. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j).

13 Article 22 of the 1925 Convention and article 20 of the Single Convention. 

14 See qabove comments on article 1, para 1 subpara (a) 

15. Article 1, para. 1, subpara. (x), clause (iv); see also comments on article 1, para. 1, subparas. (w) and (x).

16 Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (c) and para. 2; article 9, para. 1, subpara. (a), clause (ii) of the 1953 Protocol gives in substance the same meaning to consumption as article 1, para. 2 of the Single Convention.

17. Article 2, para. 3 of the Single Convention.

18. Form C/S of the Board, 4th edition (Nov. 1969), instruction No. 3; see also comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

19 Article 2, para. 4.

20 The drugs contained in such preparations are however separately recorded in the statistics which Governments must supply on the quantities of drugs used in the manufacture of preparations of Schedule 111; article 2, para. 4 and article 20, para. 1, subpara.(b); Governments must also furnish separate estimates of the quantities of drugs which they require for the manufacture of such preparations, art. 2, para. 4 and art. 19. para. 1, subpara.(b).

21 Form referred to in foot-note 18, note a to table 11, P. 9.

22 E.g., article 1, para. 2 (medical administration or dispensation); article 2. para. 9 ("used in industry"), article 18, para. 2 ("use such forms"), article 19, para. 4 ("methods used" for making estimates), article 21, para. 1, subpara. (b) ("Used ... for the manufacture"), article 21, para. 2 ("released for licit use" (including use in treatment and research, but also other uses such as in manufacture)), article 27, ("such use" (for the preparation of a flavouring agent)); ("used for the extraction of alkaloids and the flavouring agent") and article 30, para. 2 subpara. (b) ("use" in medical treatment); for use of such terms as "abuse" and "misuse" see article 3, para. 3, subpara. (iii) and paras. 4 and 5 and article 28, para. 3.

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