International Trends in Drug Policy

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of some recent trends in drug policy on the international stage, and looks at the position and future prospects of non-prohibitionist policies within that wider context. In order to examine trends in non-prohibitionist drug policies on the international stage, it is necessary to clarify the meaning of the terms “non-prohibitionist” and “international stage”. The system of international drug control began in 1909 with the international conference on drugs in Shanghai. The concern of treaties in the early part of the 20th. century was to regulate the international trade in drugs, especially opium, through production quotas and import-export regulatory mechanisms. Conservatism can be seen in institutionalisation of the direction and momentum of international treaties, in the goals and administrative structures of international bodies and their national counterparts, and in the development of vested interests in the apparatus of making, monitoring and implementing policies, treaties and programmes that have built up over the course of this century.