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The dangerousness of drugs
Author(s) -
ROOM ROBIN
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01315.x
Subject(s) - psychology , medline , medicine , psychiatry , criminology , political science , law
In principle, international drug control is justified by the risk or danger from drug use, described in the 1961 Convention in terms of the ‘serious evil’ from ‘addiction to narcotic drugs’ and the ‘social and economic danger to mankind’, in the 1971 Convention in terms of ‘the public health and social problems’ from ‘abuse’ and in the 1988 Convention in terms of a ‘serious threat to the health and welfare of human beings’ (INCB 2005). Differentiations between drugs with respect to the degree of control are based in the 1961 Convention on the extent to which the substance is ‘liable to abuse’ and ‘productive of ill effects’ (1961 Convention, Article 3), as balanced against therapeutic usefulness. The 1971 Convention offers a set of criteria for which drugs should be subject to its control, but little guidance on the criteria for the degree of control. World Health Organization (WHO) Guidelines to Expert Committees fill the gap on this, distinguishing between substances in terms of whether their ‘liability to abuse’ constitutes an ‘especially serious’, substantial’ or ‘smaller but still significant risk to public health’, interpreted to mean ‘both social and public health problems’ (WHO 2000, paragraphs 40, 41). The extent of risks of social and public health problems from use of the substance, as balanced against therapeutic usefulness, is thus the criterion for differentiating substances covered by the conventions in terms of degree of control. The 1971 Convention’s criteria for bringing substances under control in the first place require, along with the capacity to produce a ‘public health and social problem’, that the substance can produce ‘a state of dependence’ and specified central nervous system effects (1971 Convention, Art. 2). In principle, then, the international drug control system, and national systems of control operating in accordance with it, differentiate drugs in terms of a single dimension of degree of risk of social or health problems— what we may term dangerousness. According to the logic of the system, substances are differentiated (in the language of the WHO Guidelines ) in terms of whether their danger is especially serious, substantial, smaller but still significant, or not significant.