roadmaps to reforming the un drug conventions - Beckley Foundation

for personal consumption contrary to the provisions of the 1961 Convention, the 1961Convention as amended or the 1971 Convention.…4.…d) The Parties may provide, either as an alternative to conviction or punishment, or inaddition to conviction or punishment of an offence any offence with respect to narcoticdrugs or psychotropic substances established in accordance with paragraph 2 other thanas required by paragraph 1 of this article, measures for the treatment, education,aftercare, rehabilitation or social reintegration of the offender.4. Option 2 − remove obligations to prohibit domestic nonmedicaland non-scientific markets in drugsThe purpose of this option is to allow Parties to the Conventions to legalise domesticmarkets and international trade in controlled substances that will be used for other thanmedical or scientific purposes. Under Option 2, Parties would no longer be required tolimit cultivation, production, manufacture, domestic trade, distribution, use orpossession of drugs to medical and scientific purposes. Nor would Parties be required tolimit import and export of drugs to these purposes. However, they would continue to beprohibited from allowing the export of drugs other than in accordance with thereceiving country or territory’s laws and regulations, and they would still be required tocontrol import and export under licence, control all parties and enterprises undertakingimport and export, and require specific import and export authorisations. In addition, ifParties were to decide to permit domestic non-medical and non-scientific markets indrugs, they would also be required to apply most of the existing control measures in theConventions to those markets. For example, Parties would be required to ensure (underArticles 23, 26 and 28 of the 1961 Convention) that cultivation of and domestic trade inopium poppy, cannabis and coca for non-medical and non-scientific purposes would becontrolled by a government agency. They would also be required to ensure (underArticles 29 and 30 of the 1961 Convention and Articles 7 and 8 of the 1971 Convention)that the manufacture, domestic trade in, and distribution of drugs for non-medical ornon-scientific purposes would be under licence or authorisation. It is also proposedunder Option 2 that the requirements for countries and territories to furnish estimates(in Article 19 of the 1961 Convention) and statistical returns in relation to their drug useand production (in Article 20 of the 1961 Convention and Article 16(4) of the 1971Convention) and to prevent manufacture and import beyond their requirements (inArticle 21 of the 1961 Convention) would be extended to non-medical or non-scientificuse of drugs.Under Option 2, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) would no longer beresponsible for limiting domestic markets in drugs to medical and scientific purposes.Instead, the INCB’s main roles in relation to domestic drug control would be to monitormedical and scientific and non-medical and non-scientific domestic markets in drugs40