Multilateral Agreements on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances [9]

Chapter 19 - The International Legal Environment

Multilateral Agreements on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances[1][9]

Date and place signed	Title of agreement	Date of entry into force
26 February 1909 Shanghai, China	Final Resolutions of the International Opium Commission¹	Not applicable
23 January 1912 The Hague, Netherlands	International Opium Convention	11 February 1915 / 28 June 1919 ²
11 February 1925 Geneva, Switzerland	Agreement concerning the Manufacture of, Internal Trade in, and Use of Prepared Opium	28 July 1926
19 February 1925 Geneva, Switzerland	International Opium Convention	25 September 1928
13 July 1931 Geneva, Switzerland	Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs ³	9 July 1933
27 November 1931 Bangkok, Thailand	Agreement for the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East	22 April 1937
26 June 1936 Geneva, Switzerland	Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs	26 October 1939
11 December 1946 Lake Success, New York, USA	Protocol amending the Agreements, Conventions and Protocols on Narcotic Drugs concluded at The Hague on 23 January 1912, at Geneva on 11 February 1925 and 19 February 1925 and 13 July 1931, at Bangkok on 27 November 1931, and at Geneva on 26 June 1936	11 December 1946
19 November 1948 Paris, France	Protocol Bringing under International Control Drugs outside the Scope of the Convention of 13 July 1931, for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, as amended by the Protocol signed at Lake Success, New York, on 11 December 1946	1 December 1949
23 June 1953 New York, USA	Protocol for Limiting and Regulating the Cultivation of the Poppy Plant, the Production of, International and Wholesale Trade in, and Use of, Opium	8 March 1963
30 March 1961 New York, USA.	Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961	13 December 1964
21 February 1971 Vienna, Austria	Convention on Psychotropic Substances	16 August 1976
25 March 1972 Geneva, Switzerland	Protocol amending the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961	8 August 1975
20 December 1988 Vienna, Austria	United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances	11 November 1990

¹ This is the only document in the table that is not an enforceable multilateral treaty. It is included because it marks the beginning of substantial international cooperation on drug control.

² China, the Netherlands, and the U.S. implemented the Convention in 1915 (Honduras and Norway followed suit later that year). It did not come into force globally until it was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

³ As amended by the Protocol signed at Lake Success, New York, on 11 December 1946.

[1][9] Sources: Canadian Treaty Series; Kettil Bruun, Lynn Pan and Ingemar Rexed, (1975) The Gentlemen’s Club: International Control of Drugs and Alcohol, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; United States, (1972) International Narcotics Control: A Source Book of Conventions, Protocols, and Multilateral Agreements, 1909-1971, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs.

Major Studies of Drugs and Drug Policy
Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs
Volume 3 - Public Policy Options