The problem of narcotic drugs is in no sense a problem confined to one continent or civilization.
Author: THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Pages: 3 to 3
Creation Date: 1949/01/01
The problem of narcotic drugs is in no sense a problem confined to one continent or civilization.
In themselves narcotic drugs are neither dangerous nor harmful. Indispensable to modern medicine, they are used the world over to alleviate pain and restore health. Thus used they bring a great benefit to mankind. But abused they cause havoc and misery. The social dangers of drug addiction are well known.
This dual nature of narcotic drugs has made it necessary to submit them to the most stringent international control. In the general interest of the world community some seventy Governments Parties to international treaties on narcotics, renouncing in this field certain prerogatives of national sovereignty, accepted the system of a universal international control vested with powers of automatic sanctions (embargo on trade in narcotics). This control, functioning now under the auspices of the United Nations and expanding rapidly to the field of newly discovered synthetic drugs, ensures the limitation of their manufacture, trade and consumption to legitimate needs only.
This international control and the treaties on which it is based have, however, a wider significance than the limited field of narcotic drugs. If the principles on which these treaties and this control rest could he applied with equal success to wider fields of human endeavour, to other kinds of dangerous weapons, peace would he within our reach.