United Nations

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VIENNA, 29 October, 1999 (UN Information Service) -- Providing controlled drugs to ease human suffering worldwide will be the focus of concern for the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) during its sixty-seventh session, which begins here on 1 November. A guaranteed supply of controlled drugs for medical purposes is an important objective of the international drug control treaties and the Board will review progress made and constraints involved in achieving this objective as well as how to prevent the diversion of controlled drugs from licit to illicit channels.

 The forthcoming INCB annual report, to be published in early 2000, will focus on problems of the supply of controlled drugs for medical purposes. It will also review worldwide  trends in drug abuse and trafficking and recommend measures that Governments and international bodies can take to improve controls. Three further annual technical reports dealing with, respectively, narcotic drugs,  psychotropic substances and precursors and chemicals are also to be finalized during the session. 

 During its session the Board will consider whether  a number of chemicals frequently used in the illicit manufacture of narcotic drugs  and psychotropic substances should be proposed for international control under one of the Tables of the 1988 Convention.

 The Board will examine progress made as well as problems faced by Governments in following the international drug treaties over the past year. Since its last report, issued on 23 February, 1999, the Board has sent missions to Bahamas, Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, France, Germany, Guatemala, Hungary, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Mongolia and the United Kingdom. Technical visits were made to Bolivia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Estonia, Mexico, and the United States of America.

 The Board is an independent body established by the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs to monitor Governments’ compliance with the international drug control treaties. Its 13 members are elected by the Economic and Social Council to serve in their individual capacities and its meetings are held in private.

 The 13 members of the Board are: Edouard Armenakovich Babayan (Russian Federation), Chinmay Chakrabarty (India), Dr. Nelia P. Cortes-Maramba ( Philippines), Jacques Franquet (France), Dr. Hamid Ghodse (Iran), Dil Jan Khan (Pakistan), Antonio Lourenço Martins (Portugal), Mohamed Mansour (Egypt), Herbert S. Okun (United States of America), Dr. Alfredo Pemjean (Chile), Oskar Schroeder (Germany), Elba Torres Graterol (Venezuela) and Sergio Uribe Ramirez (Colombia).

 The current session runs until 18 November, 1999.
 

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