| UNITED NATIONS Information Service |  | NATIONS UNIES Service d'information | ||
| VEREINTE NATIONEN Informationsdienst | ||||
For information - not an official document Zur Information - kein offizielles Dokument Pour information - document sans caractère officiel | ||||
| ||||
| International Narcotics Control Board Focuses on Overconsumption of Internationally Controlled Drugs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
VIENNA, 1 November (UN Information Service) - The overconsumption of internationally controlled drugs will be examined by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) during its current session which began here today. The Board will analyse the distribution and marketing practices used by pharmaceutical companies to supply medicines containing controlled substances, and the role of Governments to limit the use of controlled drugs to real medical and scientific requirements as required by the international drug control conventions. This topic was chosen by the Board for special emphasis in its next Annual Report, which will come out in early 2001. The forthcoming Report will also review trends in world drug abuse and trafficking as well as measures taken by Governments throughout the world to combat these problems. In that context, the Board recommends to Governments and international bodies actions to be taken nationally and internationally to improve controls. Three further annual technical reports dealing with, respectively, narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors and chemicals are also on the agenda of the session. The Board will examine progress made, as well as problems faced by, Governments in implementing the provisions of the international drug treaties, particularly in countries to which the Board has sent missions over the past year. Since its last Report, the Board has sent missions to Albania, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, El Salvador, Honduras, Ireland, Lebanon, Paraguay, the Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Senegal, Spain, Switzerland, United Republic of Tanzania and Uruguay. The Vienna-based Board is an independent body established by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to monitor Governments’ compliance with the international drug control treaties. Its 13 members are elected by the Economic and Social Council to serve in their individual capacities for a term of five years. Its meetings are held in private. The current session of the Board is its sixty-ninth and runs through 17 November. The 13 members of the Board are Edouard Armenakovich Babayan (Russian Federation), Chinmay Chakrabarty (India), Dr. Nelia P. Cortes-Maramba (Philippines), Dr. Philip O. Emafo (Nigeria), Jacques Franquet (France), Dr. Hamid Ghodse (Iran), Nhzhet Kandemir (Turkey), Dil Jan Khan (Pakistan), Maria Elena Medina-Mora (Mexico), Herbert S. Okun (United States of America), Dr. Alfredo Pemjean (Chile), Sergio Uribe Ramirez (Colombia) and Jiwang Zheng (China). ***** | ||||
INTERNATIONALES ZENTRUM WIEN POSTFACH 500, A-1400 WIEN, ÖSTERREICH TEL.: 26060/4666/4677 FAX: 26060-5899 Email: UNIS@unis.un.or.at | ||||
