The monitoring of trade in and control of psychotropic substances to guard against their diversion.

The establishment of international control of opiates has been an important achievement of the international community; this is substantiated by the fact that, at the beginning of this century, legally manufactured morphine and heroin were the principal sources of illicit supply, whereas at present the illicit traffic in these drugs is supplied from illicit sources. The poppy straw process has helped to promote measures to control opium poppy cultivation in a number of European countries; Turkey has been a successful example of such control. The present large-scale illicit traffic in cannabis resin and cocaine is the consequence of the lack of the implementation of provisions of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, to control the cannabis plant and the coca bush at the national level. The provisions of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, being largely a result of international compromise, are not designed in the best possible way to prevent the diversion of psychotropic substances from legal sources to illicit channels. There are no appropriate provisions for the control and monitoring of international transactions. There is a discrepancy between the rather limited scope of international control of substances listed in schedules III and IV of the 1971 Convention and the much larger scope of control of hypnotics, sedatives and tranquillizers at national levels. The provisions of the 1971 Convention, however, constitute a legal basis for bilateral and multilateral actions for the detection of suspected diversion cases, and offer possibilities of promoting the prevention of diversion of psychotropic substances. At present, the relationship between the control of psychotropic drugs, including the prevention of diversion and the organization of the national drug supply system, as well as the efficacy of national control over pharmaceutical products, has not been fully recognized by the international community.