THE INTERNATIONAL OPIUM CONVENTION IS SIGNED

Today, The Grandma has been reading about The International Opium Convention, the first international drug control treaty that was signed on a day like today in 1912.

The International Opium Convention, signed at The Hague on January 23, 1912 during the First International Opium Conference, was the first international drug control treaty.

The United States was unsuccessful in its attempts to have cannabis included in the 1912 Convention.

It was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on January 23, 1922. The United States convened a 13-nation conference of the International Opium Commission in 1909 in Shanghai, China, in response to increasing criticism of the opium trade. 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 as opposed to imposing prohibition or criminalising the use and cultivation of opium, coca, and cannabis.

That explains the withdrawal of the United States and China, which were gravitating towards prohibitionist approaches, as well as the beginning of negotiations leading to the 1925 International Opium Convention in Geneva.

A revised International Opium Convention International Convention relating to Dangerous Drugs was signed at Geneva on February 19, 1925, which went into effect on September 25, 1938, and was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on the same day. It introduced a statistical control system to be supervised by a Permanent Central Opium Board, a body of the League of Nations.

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. Accordingly, this provision never made it into the final treaty.

A compromise 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.

The Convention was superseded by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

More information: United Nations

 The British seizure of Hongkong was an aspect
of one of the most ugly crimes of the British Empire:
the takeover and destruction of India,
and the use of India to flood China with opium.

Robert Trout