Many issues remained unresolved. For example, only some narcotic preparations were controlled whereas the production of raw materials for the making of synthetic drugs remained uncontrolled. The cultivation and use of drug-bearing plants and other problems related to narcotics required a legal regulation. In view of this, two important international acts were worked out and approved within the United Nations framework. They were the Uniform Convention on Drugs of 1961 amended later by the 1972 Protocol on Drugs, and the United Nations Convention of 1988 which provided for action against the illegal trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances.

One need not think however that the provisions of the earlier approved acts were so out-dated that they required to be radically changed. The two Conventions left intact therefore many time-tested provisions of the above-cited documents. At present they form the main legal foundation for the system helping exercise international cooperation and control over drugs.

The Uniform Convention of 1961:

The 1961 Uniform Convention regulates questions pertaining to the legal use of drugs. Its adoption was a landmark in the development of relations based on international law. The Convention is designed to promote decisive actions against narcotics at the international level through the building of a system of international cooperation and control over narcotics. In fact, this one document is a substitute for all the previously accepted international acts (with the exception of some points of the 1936 Convention). It diminished the number of international bodies in charge of the control over narcotics, and established control over the production of drug-bearing raw materials.

The participants in the Convention expressed the wish to sign a universally accepted international convention to limit the use of narcotics to medical and scientific purposes only and to maintain permanent international cooperation in order to accomplish the principles and aims of the Convention.

The parties to the Convention pledged to adopt not only necessary legislative measures, as the case had been here-to fore, but also administrative measures and to ensure fulfillment of the Convention's decisions. They took upon themselves to limit the production, exportation, importation, distribution, use, storage, and trade in narcotics and limit their use and storage for medical purposes exclusively in order to diminish sufferings and pain.

Instead of the previous four international agencies, which controlled narcotics, the Convention authorized the formation of just two: the Commission on Drugs under the UN Economic and Social Council and the newly formed International Committee on Drug Control of the United Nations Organization.

The Convention endowed these two bodies with broad authority.

The Commission on Drugs of the UN ECOSOC:

The Commission examines all issues that bear relation to the aims proclaimed by the Uniform Convention. Every year it approves and amends the List of substances, plants and preparations, the use, dissemination, cultivation and storage of which is under international control. It introduces corresponding changes and additions to the List and informs the national governments. The Commission also informs the Committee of any circumstances that may bear upon execution of its functions. Finally, it issues recommendations concerning the implementation of the Convention's aims and decisions, including the program of research and the exchange of scientific and technical information.

For example, one of the recommendations calls for the need to provide countries where the illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants is practiced with an access to modern reconnaissance technology which makes it possible to discover and then destroy such fields. This recommendation also calls for the need to promote the economies of these countries so that their farmers could earn a living by working at legal agricultural and other enterprises; to combine steps against the illegal production and spread of narcotics with the efforts to build a more just international order, give help to third world countries in boosting their economies, developing their traditional export industries and agriculture, and train specialists; to regard programs for preventing drug addiction and curing drug addicts as top priorities.28

Member countries may also be asked to submit their own recommendations. These may include annual reports about the Convention's implementation on their respective territories, texts of laws and rules passed with the aim of implementing the Convention's provisions; names and addresses of government agencies authorized to give permits for the exportation or certificates for the importation of narcotics; or any other reports about cases of illegal trafficking.

The UN Committee on Drug Control:

In accordance with the requirements of the 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments) the Committee consists of 13 members elected for the term of 5 years. 3 members with medical, pharmaceutical and pharmacological experience from the list of persons submitted by the WHO and 10 members-from the list of persons submitted by countries belonging to the UN. Persons recommended as members of the Committee have to meet special requirements such as competence, non-involvement, impartiality, trustworthiness and must have an awareness of the situation in the countries where narcotics are produced, made and consumed.

The Committee performs important functions, which actually form the essence of the system of international control over the legal use of narcotics. They are:

- using the system of estimation of the countries' demand for drugs. The countries concerned are obliged to submit the following annual estimations written in special forms to the Committee: the quantity of drugs used for medical and scientific purpose and for the preparation of other narcotics, medicines and substances not covered by the given Convention; the quantity of stored available narcotics as of December 31st of the reported year; the size and the geographical position of the field used for cultivating opium poppy and the approximate quantity of opium expected to be obtained from it, and the number of enterprises producing synthetic drugs and the quantity of such drugs produced at each enterprise;

- estimating the overall level of drugs produced and imported by any country or territory throughout one year (quantity of drugs imported which is above the reported figures cannot be permitted without a sanction from the Committee);

- introducing a regulated order for endorsing the demand for drugs used for medical purposes. To ensure a balance between the demand and supply of opiates used in medicine, the Committee sends information with estimates of the demand for these preparations to the country producing these drugs. The country is to agree with these estimates and then decrease (or increase) their production.