Treaty on narcotic drug control adopted by United Nations General Assembly in 1946
Transferred international narcotic drug control authority from the League of Nations to the United Nations, establishing the framework still reflected in the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
Key Facts
- Signed
- 11 December 1946
- Signing location
- Lake Success, New York
- Initial state parties
- 40
- State parties as of 2013
- 62
- Treaties amended
- Conventions from 1912, 1925, 1931, and 1936
- Supervisory Body members
- 4 members drawn from WHO, CND, and Permanent Central Board
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
The dissolution of the League of Nations left its drug control functions without an institutional home. Existing conventions from 1912 through 1936 had vested authority in League bodies, requiring a new instrument to transfer those responsibilities to the newly formed United Nations.
On 11 December 1946 at Lake Success, states signed the Protocol Amending the Agreements, Conventions and Protocols on Narcotic Drugs. It transferred drug policy-making from the League's Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium to the UN's Commission on Narcotic Drugs and created a Supervisory Body to administer the narcotics estimate system.
The Protocol's power structure directly influenced the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which superseded most of its provisions but retained its institutional design. The Commission on Narcotic Drugs and the successor International Narcotics Control Board continued to shape global drug policy under the framework the Protocol established.
Political Outcome
Drug control functions transferred from League of Nations bodies to the United Nations; Commission on Narcotic Drugs and a new Supervisory Body established to oversee global narcotics regulation.
Drug control authority held by League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs
Authority vested in the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs under the UN Economic and Social Council