running currently at about 900 metric tons per year. The illicit annual production of raw opium, on the other hand, is more than 1200 tons excluding Chinese sources, most of this representing a diversion of licit material into the illicit traffic. The licit production of drugs is monitored and to a considerable extent, controlled through the medium of the United Nations International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) established under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The Convention provides for a comprehensive control of narcotics on both national and international levels. Specific provisions of the Convention outlaw the production, trade and use for non-medical purposes of all narcotic substances, limit manufacture and possession of all narcotic substances to authorized persons, and make obligatory limitation on the amounts produced, and stocks held. In setting out to implement these provisions the Narcotics Control Board requires the Governments represented to submit statistical reports, and to take national action where necessary. The effectiveness of these measures depends ultimately on formal acceptance of the terms of the 1961 Convention by all Governments. To date 64 countries have become Parties. Those Governments not represented in the United Nations Organization, notably (hitherto) Communist China and her Asian satellites, lie right outside the terms of reference of the Convention.
Legislative aspects of narcotics are dealt with by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which is currently drafting new proposals to reduce drug abuse. Membership of the Commission numbered 24 States in 1969, including Taiwan.
The introduction of an effective system of legislation has brought the licit production of narcotic drugs under strict control. However, it is important to note that the distinction between licit and illicit narcotics is strictly valid only within the legislative framework of the United Nations, and has not applied hitherto to Communist China. Illicit traffic in narcotics is particularly difficult to control since it is supplied by covert diversion of narcotics from official sources and, increasingly, from clandestine production.
Some indication of the extent of the illicit traffic in narcotics is
provided by reports of seizures from the ICPO/Interpol Organization. This information' is supplied by participating Governments to the Narcotics Control Board. Seizures typically represent no more than about 1 - 5% of the total amount of each drug flowing into, or through, any particular country. The quantities of each drug confiscated fluctuate from year to year, depending on local circumstances and the efficiency of enforcement efforts. With this reservation, the data provide useful indicators of the location of illicit traffic, and of the trend in its volume. The data (Table 1) present an alarming picture of the growth in the international narcotics traffic in recent years. The growth in U.S. heroin seizures is particularly significant.
As far as the illicit traffic in narcotics is concerned, opium is the most important drug, not only in itself, but because it is the raw material for morphine and heroin. Opium is the dried juice from the unripe capsule of the opium poppy. After the petals have fallen from
the poppy flowers, the exterior of the capsules are scratched with a
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