Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

changeable and dynamic nature. The extent of danger they pose can move them from one category to another. At present any crimes encroaching upon the vital interests of all nations and countries can be considered as international crime or crime of international character.

Virtually all countries recognize the need to combat international crimes and crimes of international character, including the illegal dissemination of and trade with narcotics. The binding nature of this effort stems from the universally recognized principles of international law, including the international duty of all countries to maintain peace and promote security of all nations, as well as to hold persons guilty of committing crimes against the peace and security of mankind and other crimes of international character accountable for their actions.

All international legal acts against drug abuse can be divided into general and specific. General acts regulate various types of international relations, particularly, those formed in connection with actions against international crimes and crimes of international character, including the dissemination of and trade with drugs. Specific acts of international law bear direct relation to actions against drug abuse and its most dangerous aspect- narco-crime.

General Acts of International Law:

General acts of international law lay the legal foundation for cooperation among nations, in actions against international crimes and crimes of international character, the dissemination of narcotics among others. One of these acts is the UN Charter. Its Preamble urges all UN members to join in a common effort to maintain international peace and security. The UN Charter stresses the need to use international machinery for promoting the nations' economic and social progress and sets the goal "to practice international cooperation in resolving international problems of economic, social, cultural and humanitarian nature and in encouraging and promoting respect for human rights and basic freedoms for all regardless of race, sex, language and religion"

The UN Charter (part 2 art. 2) also calls on nations to strictly and unswervingly observe international commitments that they have taken upon themselves voluntarily and among them, as the Preamble points out, to the commitments stemming from treaties, agreements and other sources of international law.

One of the major historically evolved principles of international law states that international agreements must be observed. Stemming from this principle is a member nation's duty to cooperate in combating crime, international crimes and crimes of international character, including the dissemination of and trade with narcotics.

These crimes have certain particularities. This has a bearing on the question of accountability if such crimes are committed. According to I.I. Karpets, there is a need to single out crimes covered by conventions or other signed and ratified international agreements, especially, if national legislation have been brought in accord with them. The existence of both is a good reason for making those guilty of committing these crimes to be held accountable. A failure to do so must be qualified as a violation of both international law and national legislation.

In case there are no coordinated norms of accountability, the involved countries should proceed from the general principles that had developed among nations and resolve questions of cooperation against crime on that basis. Specifically, they may determine the forms of this cooperation, its confines, the need to institute criminal proceedings in view of the committed crimes of international character, etc.

Special Acts of International Law:

Special norms of international law dealing with measures to combat drug abuse have been taking shape gradually. The history of their development is uneven- from establishing international control over the lawful distribution and use of drugs to introducing control over illegal drug trafficking.

It is not accidental that crimes bearing on drug abuse are qualified as crimes of international character. This can be attributed to a number of circumstances.

As an age-old phenomenon, drug addiction has spread over large territories. As it kept crossing national borders, whole areas appeared that specialized in growing and processing drug-bearing plants, manufacturing and distributing narcotics. Recently, areas where drug money can be laundered at a profit have emerged. In short, drug addiction has become widespread practically on all the continents. Drug abuse has acquired a transnational nature. At the turn of last century it had already been clear that drug addiction endangered not only the lives of individuals and social groups but also the economic advancement of many countries, as it is bound to inflict considerable damage on agriculture and trade and undermine whole industries. (chemical, pharmaceutical or pharmacological).

Measures that various governments tried to employ within their countries in the hope to "curb" drug addiction, so to speak, and ban, say, in Turkey or China, the non-medicinal use of drugs, failed to bring any positive results.

On top of that, programs against drug addiction required additional financial resources for treatment and social rehabilitation of addicts, medical personnel, curative medicines, and preventive measures by law enforcement agencies. Many countries lacked such financial resources. So, actions against drug abuse began crossing national boundaries. The awareness of a possible proliferation of drugs raised concern of the world public opinion and governments of many countries began pressing for the intensification of the rule of law on the international scene.

Consequently, an objective need arose to work out and put into practice joint inter-governmental agreements, adopt effective legal norms that would regulate international cooperation, enable countries to employ coordinated measures against drugs as a whole and its specific manifestations and to establish, as a result, both a domestic and international control over the use of narcotics and their consumption.

The first experiment of international control over narcotics and of measures against drug addiction at the international level dates back to the Shanghai Opium Commission held between February 5th and 26th 1909 in the city of Shanghai.

Shanghai Opium Commission of 1909:

This commission consisted of the representatives from 13 countries: Russia, the USA, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Britain, France, China, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal and Siam.

The commission attempted to work out measures that would block the illegal flow of drugs from the regions of Asia to European countries and the United States. It also discussed questions related to opium smoking and to international trade in opium derivatives.

In the long run, however, no constructive measures were produced. Documents issued by the commission contained no specific bans even on opium smoking. Members of the commission thought it was sufficient to only speak about its regulation and gradual restriction.

Nevertheless, the work of the Shanghai opium commission of 1909 played a significant role. Officially it marked the beginning of actions against drug addiction at the international level and to the launching of a system of international control over the spread of drugs. It also mapped out directions for the future international legislation in resolving problems reviewed in Shanghai.

A further advancement in combating drugs was made in the Hague at the International Opium Conference held from December 1st 1911 to January 23d 1912. Representatives of 12 countries took part in it (the same as in Shanghai excluding Austria-Hungary). The conference prepared and adopted the first convention on drugs (known as the Hague Convention). As a follow up to the Shanghai Commission, in terms of ideas, the conference proclaimed the timeliness of actions against narcotics as a whole and its specific trends.

The Hague Convention of 1912:

The Hague convention of 1912 was the first to define the specific types of drugs, which were put under international control. They were raw opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine and a few others. The contracting parties took pledges of both domestic and international nature upon themselves to adopt national laws establishing control over the production and distribution of raw opium, and at barring its illegal imports and exports without permits granted by specially authorized persons; to take steps towards gradually halting the production, domestic trade and use of smoke opium and introducing a ban on its imports and exports; to use narcotic substances (medicinal opium, morphine and cocaine) only for medicinal and "other reasonable purposes"; to ensure a legal regulation of the production of morphine, cocaine, medicinal opium, heroin and their derivatives and also of trade in these narcotic substances; to adopt appropriate laws (if they are not adopted yet) or change existing laws concerning the responsibility and punishment of persons guilty of acts involving the illegal possession of drugs.

The provision concerning the legal regulation of the production of morphine and its derivatives and trade in them (cocaine, medicinal opium and heroin) was an important step. It was an attempt to use preventive measures such as foreseeing the establishment of international control over narcotic substances, which could appear in the future without their prior concrete mentioning in the Convention's text.

The significant feature