roadmaps to reforming the un drug conventions - Beckley Foundation

Accordingly, for the purposes of Option 1, Article 7(a) would need to be changed so thatParties would no longer be required to prohibit non-commercial use, manufacture,import, export, distribution and possession of small quantities of drugs for other thanmedical or scientific purposes, but would continue to be required to prohibit theseactivities where they involve more than a small quantity of drugs and are forcommercial, non-medical and non-scientific purposes. (It is submitted that the medicaluse exception to the prohibition requirement in Article 7(a) should be changed from‘very limited medical purposes’ to ‘medical purposes’, as Parties should not be requiredto prohibit any legitimate medical use of the substances.)The new Article 2 bis would exempt non-commercial use of small quantities of ScheduleI substances and related actions from the requirements of Article 7(a). However, asdiscussed above, Article 7(a) also obliges Parties to require that use of Schedule Isubstances be limited to duly authorised persons in Government controlled orauthorised medical or scientific establishments. If the proposed new Article 2 bis were toapply to Article 7(a), Parties would be exempt from applying this requirement tomedical or scientific use of small quantities of Schedule I substances for non-commercialpurposes.As with the medical prescription requirement in Article 30(2)(b), it is submitted that useof Schedule I substances for scientific and medical purposes should continue to be subject tothe control measure in Article 7(a) irrespective of the quantity of the substances involvedor whether the use is for commercial purposes. These measures arguably providenecessary safeguards in relation to scientific and medical use of Schedule I substances,and the purpose of Option 1 is not to remove Parties’ obligations to impose suchsafeguards. Therefore, it is submitted that Article 7(a) should not be subject to theexemption in the new Article 2 bis to the extent that it applies to medical and scientificuse of drugs. This means that another method would be needed to exclude noncommercialactions involving small quantities of drugs for other than medical orscientific purposes from the requirements of Article 7(a).To achieve these outcomes, it is proposed that Article 7(a) should be excluded from thenew Article 2 bis. In addition, Article 5(1), which would be subject to the new Article 2bis, should be amended as proposed above so that Parties’ obligations to limit use,manufacture, import, export, distribution and possession of Schedule I substances tomedical and scientific purposes would be set out explicitly in that provision, rather thanin Article 7(a), and non-commercial actions in relation to small quantities of substanceswould be exempt from this obligation. (Given the heading and purpose of Article 5 –limitation of use and actions to medical and scientific purposes – it seems sensible forthis obligation to be contained in Article 5(1), and this would also allow the exemptionin Article 2 bis to apply to the obligation.)Article 7(a) would need to be amended to specify that the control measures in thisprovision apply only in relation to medical and scientific use of Schedule I substances. Inaddition, Article 7(a) would need to be amended to remove the obligation to prohibit allother use of the substances, as it is proposed that the obligation to limit use of Schedule I145