CHANGES IN THE SCOPE OF CONTROL
Pages: 51 to 51
Creation Date: 1960/01/01
The international treaties on narcotic drugs make provision for changes in the scope of control by means of a procedure which involves governments, the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the World Health Organization, in particular its Expert Committee on Addiction-producing Drugs. The procedure may be applied not only in respect of the extension of control to new drugs, but also in respect of exemption from control of drugs or their preparations.
The international procedure for extending control to new drugs is put into motion upon an application being made by a government to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, who transmits it immediately to all states parties to the relevant convention and the international bodies concerned, including the World Health Organization. The latter subsequently decides whether the substance considered is susceptible of producing addiction or of being converted into a product capable of producing addiction. If so, it is placed under one of the two existing control regimes provided in the conventions. Any positive decision is ultimately communicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to all governments, whereupon the drug in question enters the control system.
In the case of the exemption from control of drugs or their preparations, the procedure is similar except that as regards exemption of preparations, the World Health Organization can act on its own initiative.
During 1959, several requests were received from governments regarding extension of control to new drugs. The World Health Organization decided that:
The drugs allylprodine, benzethidine, furethidine, levophenacylmorphan, metazocine, norlevorphanol, phenazocine, piminodine and their respective salts should be placed under the more severe of the two principal regimes of control applying to narcotic drugs - viz, under that which is applicable to morphine or morphine-like drugs, in view of their dangerous addiction-forming properties. It may be noted that the drug phenazocine and its salts had previously been placed provisionally under the same control regime by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at its fourteenth session, 27 April to 15 May 1959.
In the absence of sufficient data, no decision was made in respect of the drug 2,2-bis-diethylaminomethyl-1-phenyl-1-cyclohexylethane.