National Amphetamine-Type Stimulant Strategy Background Paper: Monograph Series No. 69
Chapter 6: Law Enforcement
Australia is a signatory to three United Nations major international drug control treaties, their crime conventions and related resolutions, which are mutually supportive and complementary. As stated in the World Drug Report (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2007), an important purpose of the first two treaties is to codify internationally applicable control measures in order to ensure the availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes, and to prevent their diversion into illicit channels. They also include general provisions on illicit trafficking and drug abuse.
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 aims to combat drug abuse by coordinated international action. There are two forms of intervention and control that work together. First, it seeks to limit the possession, use, trade, distribution, import, export, manufacture and production of drugs exclusively to medical and scientific purposes. Second, it combats drug trafficking through international cooperation to deter and discourage drug traffickers.
The Convention on Psychotropic Substances 1971 establishes an international control system for psychotropic substances. It responded to the diversification and expansion of the spectrum of drugs of abuse and introduced controls over a number of synthetic drugs according to their abuse potential on the one hand and their therapeutic value on the other. The Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988 provides comprehensive measures against drug trafficking, including provisions against money laundering and the diversion of precursor chemicals. It provides for international cooperation through, for example, extradition of drug traffickers, controlled deliveries and transfer of proceedings.
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