Senate resolution 287
Senate resolution 288
Senate resolution 290
Pages: 48 to 48
Creation Date: 1957/01/01
During the 84th Congress, the United States Senate has dealt extensively with the problem of narcotics; by resolution 67 adopted 18 March 1955, it authorized the first nation-wide investigation of the illicit traffic in the United States. At the conclusion of the investigation the Sub-Committee on Improvements in the Federal Criminal Code of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate published first a preliminary and then a final report. The Bulletin presented the general recommendations contained in the preliminary report in Volume VIII, No. 2, and the final report in Volume VIII, No 3.
The Bulletin presents now three resolutions, Nos. 287, 288 and 290, adopted by the Senate on 12 July 1956.
Whereas at present, the United Nations Narcotic Laboratory, in testing samples of opium seized in the illicit traffic, reports the results of those tests only to the determined country of origin and to the country in which the drugs were seized: Now therefore, be it
Resolved, that it is strongly recommended that the results of such tests, in every case, be also communicated to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations.
Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of State for transmission to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Whereas the United States considers that the drug heroin is the most dangerous of addicting narcotic drugs; that the availability and use of this drug is conducive to a tenacious type of drug addiction which wreaks havoc upon and slowly destroys human lives;
Whereas it has been established that the limited medical use formerly made of heroin can be met by other less dangerous narcotic drugs, and certain countries have not yet taken action to proscribe heroin: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, that the United Nations should urge the governments of those countries which have not yet taken action to proscribe heroin to do so at the earliest possible moment.
Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of State for transmission to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Whereas the Senate of the United States has learned with regret that only eighteen of the required minimum of twenty-five countries have ratified or acceded to the Protocol of 1953 for Limiting and Regulating the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant, the Production of, International and Wholesale Trade in, and Use of Opium; and
Whereas the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations has been engaged for several years in the task of drafting a single convention on narcotic drugs designed to modernize, codify, and replace existing conventions and protocols on this subject: Therefore be it
Resolved, that (a) the United Nations should urge the governments of all countries which have not yet ratified or acceded to the said Protocol of 1953 (particularly the producing countries, Bulgaria, Greece, Iran, Turkey, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Yugoslavia) to do so at the earliest possible moment.
(b) The Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the United Nations and the governments of countries represented on that Commission are hereby urged to take appropriate steps to expedite the preparation of a final draft of the proposed single convention which may be acceptable as an improved international agreement to control more effectively the traffic in narcotic drugs.
Sec. 2. The Secretary of the Senate shall forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of State for transmission to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.