Today in 1912, the Hague hosted 13 countries (including the U.S.) at the International Opium Convention, which created a framework to empower signatories to control hard drugs — including morphine and cocaine (but stopped short of prohibiting or criminalizing opium poppy or cannabis). Signatories were to “use their best endeavours to control, or to cause to be controlled, all persons manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting [...] as well as the buildings in which these persons carry such an industry or trade." A later convention established an oversight body called the Permanent Central Opium Board, which might sound like something from the Dr. Strangelove script, but eventually morphed into the International Narcotics Control Board in 1968, whose role is to monitor the drug control policies of United Nations member states. Pictured: the cover of the first edition of “The International Opium Conferences” published in 1925; public domain.
NCPA
