The international treaties on narcotic drugs make provision for placing new narcotic drugs under international control, by means of a procedure which involves governments, the Secretary-General of the Unites Nations, and the World Health Organization. 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.
Pages: 56 to 56
Creation Date: 1964/01/01
The international treaties on narcotic drugs make provision for placing new narcotic drugs under international control, by means of a procedure which involves governments, the Secretary-General of the Unites Nations, and the World Health Organization. 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 governments and the World Health Organization. The latter subsequently decides whether the substance considered is capable of producing addiction or is convertible into such a substance. If so, it is placed under one of the two existing control regimes provided in the conventions. The decision is ultimately communicated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to all governments, whereupon the drug in question enters the control system.
During 1963, several requests were received from governments concerning extension of control to new substances, and the World Health Organization took the following decisions:
That two drugs, Fentanyl (international non-proprietary name proposed for l-phenethyl-4-N-propionyl-anilinopiperidine), in reference of which a notification had been made by the Government of Belgium, and Norpipanone (international non-proprietary name proposed for 4,4-diphenyl-6-piperidine-3-hexanone), in reference of which a notification had been made by the Government of Hungary, 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--that is, the regime laid down in the 1931 Convention, article 1, para. 2, group I.
That two drugs, 1-Dimethylamino-3-phenylindane (also designated as N,N-dimethyl-3-phenyl-1-indanamine), in reference of which a notification had been made by the Government of Canada, and Droxypropine (international non-proprietary name proposed for 1-[2(2-hydroxyethoxy) ethyl]-4-phenyl-4-propionylpiperidine), in respect of which a notification had been made in 1961 by the Government of the United Kingdom and the consideration of which had been postponed by the Expert Committee on Addiction-producing Drugs of the World Health Organization for lack of sufficient information, should not be regarded either as addiction-producing or as capable of conversion into addiction-producing drugs, and therefore should not be placed under international control.