International Opium Convention#Second International Opium Convention (1925)

The expression International Opium Convention refers either to the first International Opium Convention signed at The Hague in 1912, or to the second International Opium Convention signed at Geneva in 1925.

First International Opium Convention (1912)

{{Infobox Treaty

| name = 1912 Opium Convention
Hague Opium Convention

| long_name = International Opium Convention signed at The Hague, January 23rd, 1912, and Protocols of cloture signed at The Hague on January 23rd, 1912; July 9th, 1913; and June 25th, 1914.

| image =

| image_width =

| caption =

| type =

| date_drafted =

| date_signed = 23 January 1912{{Cite web|title=United Nations Treaty Collection; CHAPTER VI, NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES; 2. International Opium Convention, The Hague, 23 January 1912|url=https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsIV.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VI-2&chapter=6&Temp=mtdsg4&clang=_en|access-date=2022-02-21|website=treaties.un.org|language=EN}}

| location_signed = The Hague

| date_sealed =

| date_effective = 28 June 1919{{Cite web|title=United Nations Treaty Collection; CHAPTER VI, NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES; 2. International Opium Convention, The Hague, 23 January 1912|url=https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsIV.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VI-2&chapter=6&Temp=mtdsg4&clang=_en|access-date=2022-02-21|website=treaties.un.org|language=EN}}

| condition_effective =

| date_expiration = 13 December 1964{{Cite web|title=United Nations Treaty Collection; CHAPTER VI, NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES; 15. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961|url=https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VI-15&chapter=6&clang=_en|access-date=2022-02-21|website=treaties.un.org|language=EN}}

| signatories =

| parties =

| depositor =

| language =

| languages =

| website =

| wikisource =

}}

In 1909, a 13-nation International Opium Commission was held in Shanghai, in response to increasing criticism of the opium trade and to the Opium Wars. A few years later, in 1912, the First International Opium Conference was convened in The Hague to continue the discussions initiated in Shanghai.

The International Opium Convention (or 1912 Opium Convention) which was signed at the end of the Hague Conference, on 23 January 1912, is considered as the first international drug control treaty. It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on January 23, 1922.League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 8, pp. 188–239. The treaty was signed by Germany, the United States, China, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam. The convention provided, "The contracting Powers shall use their best endeavours to control, or to cause to be controlled, all persons manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts, as well as the buildings in which these persons carry such an industry or trade."

The convention was implemented in 1915 by the United States, Netherlands, China, Honduras, and Norway. It went into force globally in 1919, when it was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles. The primary objective of the convention was to introduce restrictions on exports; it did not entail any prohibition or criminalisation of the uses and cultivation of opium poppy, the coca plant, or cannabis.

Second International Opium Convention (1925)

{{Infobox Treaty

| name = 1925 Opium Convention
Geneva Opium Convention

| long_name = International Convention, Adopted by the Second Opium Conference (League of Nations), and Protocol relating thereto. Signed at Geneva, February 19, 1925.

| image =

| image_width =

| caption =

| type =

| date_drafted =

| date_signed = 19 February 1925{{Cite web|title=United Nations Treaty Collection; CHAPTER VI NARCOTIC DRUGS AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES 5. International Opium Convention Geneva, 19 February 1925|url=https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VI-5&chapter=6&clang=_en|access-date=2022-02-21|website=treaties.un.org|language=EN}}

| location_signed = The Hague

| date_sealed =

| date_effective =

| condition_effective =

| signatories =

| parties =

| depositor =

| language =

| languages =

| website =

| wikisource =

}}

In 1925, a Second International Opium Conference was convened in Geneva. On this occasion, a second International Opium Convention (the International Convention relating to Dangerous Drugs or 1925 Opium Convention) was signed at Geneva on 19 February 1925. It went into effect on 25 September 1928, and was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on the same day.League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. 81, pp. 318–358.{{Cite web |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_2_35/ai_54157834 |title=The beginnings of international drug control |access-date=16 February 2005 |archive-date=29 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429232350/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_2_35/ai_54157834 |url-status=dead }} It introduced a statistical control system to be supervised by a Permanent Central Opium Board, a body partly linked to the League of Nations.

= Permanent Central Opium Board =

The 1925 Convention provided for the setting up of a Permanent Central Opium Board (PCOB). It started operating in 1928. Although a treaty-mandated body, theoretically independent from the League of Nations, it became partially-integrated into the structure of the League.{{Cite book |last=McAllister |first=William B. |title=Drug Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century – An international history |publisher=Routledge |year=2000 |isbn=0-415-17990-4 |location=New-York |language=en-EN}}Renborg, B. A. (1957). International Control of Narcotics. Law and Contemporary Problems, 22(1 Narcotics), 86–112. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol22/iss1/7

The PCOB was first known as the Permanent Central Opium Board, then as the Permanent Central Narcotics Board. It is sometimes referred to as Permanent Central Board.UN (1999): "Evolution of international drug control, 1945-1995" [http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin/bulletin_1999-01-01_1_page003.html Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. LI, Nos. 1 and 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060113112714/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin/bulletin_1999-01-01_1_page003.html|date=2006-01-13}}

In 1931 the Board was supplemented by the creation of another organ under the "Limitation Convention": the Drug Supervisory Body ("Organe de Contrôle") which, together with the PCOB, was eventually merged onto the International Narcotics Control Board in 1968.

= Cannabis in the 1925 Convention =

Egypt, with support from Italy and South Africa, recommended that measures of control be extended beyond opium and cocaine derivatives, to hashish. A sub-committee was created, and proposed the following text:

The use of Indian hemp and the preparations derived therefrom may only be authorized for medical and scientific purposes. The raw resin (charas), however, which is extracted from the female tops of the cannabis sativa L, together with the various preparations (hashish, chira, esrar, diamba, etc.) of which it forms the basis, not being at present utilized for medical purposes and only being susceptible of utilisation for harmful purposes, in the same manner as other narcotics, may not be produced, sold, traded in, etc., under any circumstances whatsoever.

India and other countries objected to this language, citing social and religious customs and the prevalence of wild-growing cannabis plants that would make it difficult to enforce. A compromise[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1920/willoughby.htm W.W. WILLOUGHBY: OPIUM AS AN INTERNATIONAL PROBLEM, BALTIMORE, THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS, 1925] was made that banned exportation of Indian hemp to countries that have prohibited its use, and requiring importing countries to issue certificates approving the importation and stating that the shipment was required "exclusively for medical or scientific purposes." It also required Parties to "exercise an effective control of such a nature as to prevent the illicit international traffic in Indian hemp and especially in the resin." These restrictions still left considerable leeway for countries to allow production, internal trade, and use of cannabis for recreational purposes.[http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin/bulletin_1962-01-01_4_page005.html The cannabis problem: A note on the problem and the history of international action] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050526043451/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/bulletin/bulletin_1962-01-01_4_page005.html |date=2005-05-26 }}

The Opium Conventions after Second World War

After the second world war, the two Opium Conventions were amended to transfer the mandates and functions of the League of Nations and the Office international d'hygiène publique to the United Nations and World Health Organization.{{Cite web |title=Cannabis amnesia – Indian hemp parley at the Office International d'Hygiène Publique in 1935 [preprint] |url=https://www.authorea.com/doi/full/10.22541/au.165237542.24089054/v1 |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=www.authorea.com |doi=10.22541/au.165237542.24089054/v1|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 }} Eventually, both the 1912 and the 1925 Conventions were superseded by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs which merged the Permanent Central Opium Board and the Drug Supervisory Body onto the INCB.

References

[http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_2_35/ai_54157834 The beginnings of international drug control] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080429232350/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1309/is_2_35/ai_54157834 |date=29 April 2008 }}, UN Chronicle, Summer, 1998.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20050125000432/http://www.tc.edu/centers/cifas/drugsandsociety/background/OpiumConvention.html International Opium Convention Signed at The Hague January 23, 1912].

External links

[http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/LNTSer/1922/29.html Text of the 1912 convention]
[http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/LNTSer/1928/231.html Text of the 1925 convention]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20101227163812/http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetailsIV.aspx?&src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=VI~2&chapter=6&Temp=mtdsg4&lang=en Signatures and ratifications].
{{cite web |url=https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/the-1912-hague-international-opium-convention.html |title=The 1912 Hague International Opium Convention |date=January 23, 2009 |publisher=United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime}}
[http://www.opiummuseum.com/ Opium Museum]
[https://www.tni.org/en/publication/the-un-drug-control-conventions#box1 A primer on the UN Drug Control Conventions] Transnational Institute.
[http://www.tni.org/detail_pub.phtml?&know_id=35&menu11d Losing Ground: Drug Control and War in Afghanistan] Transnational Institute.