Reclassification of substances

The shortcomings and side effects of substance scheduling

2022-04-08T14:38:27+00:00

Substance scheduling is a central function of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs and a longstanding pillar of international and national drug policies. Despite the continued reliance on scheduling, the ...

IDPC contribution for the pre-review of CBD and Tramadol at the 39th WHO Expert Committee on Drug Dependence

2017-12-18T13:00:17+00:00

The Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) of the World Health Organization (WHO) will hold its 39th meeting from 6th to 10th November 2017 in Geneva. The ECDD is mandated by the 1961 and 1971 UN ...

WMA warns against making essential anaesthetic a controlled drug

2015-03-06T10:03:42+00:00

The World Medical Association is urging its 111 member associations to lobby their governments to oppose scheduling the anaesthetic agent Ketamine as a controlled drug. The United Nations Commission ...

The ketamine controversy, continued

2015-03-06T09:38:46+00:00

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna will decide next week between two opposite proposals by China and the WHO about international control of ketamine, an essential anaesthetic in human a ...

CND decision to schedule ketamine would undermine WHO treaty mandate

2015-02-16T12:39:24+00:00

The 58th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in March 2015 has been asked to consider a Chinese proposal to place ketamine – an essential medicine used for anaesthesia – in Schedule ...

Fact Sheet on the Proposal to Discuss International Scheduling of Ketamine at the 58th CND

2015-01-28T15:08:35+00:00

Ketamine is an essential medicine used for anaesthesia. It is the only available anaesthetic for essential surgery in most rural areas of developing countries, home to more than 2 billion of the worl ...

Illegal drugs laws: Clearing a 50-year-old obstacle to research

2015-02-03T16:54:39+00:00

The United Nations drug control conventions of 1960 and 1971 and later additions have inadvertently resulted in perhaps the greatest restrictions of medical and life sciences research. These conventi ...

Scheduling in the international drug control system

2014-06-13T09:08:29+00:00

While often viewed as an obscure technical issue, the problem of scheduling lies at the core of the functioning of the international drug control system. Scheduling – the classification of a substanc ...

The concept of ‘drug harms’

2010-12-28T13:29:33+00:00

In my view, perceived harms associated with drugs are vulnerable to so many restrictions on reliability and validity that, for the time being, a serious estimate of drug harm per drug is impossible. ...

Drug harms in the UK

2010-11-02T12:20:52+00:00

To provide better guidance to policy makers in health, policing, and social care, the harms that drugs cause need to be properly assessed. This task is not easy because of the wide range of ways in w ...

Politics and science in classifying the dangers of drugs

2011-03-14T10:13:09+00:00

There is a long history of psychoactive substances being regarded as dangerous and subsequently being banned or forbidden. Often the bans were introduced on substances new and unfamiliar to a society ...

Guidance on the WHO review of psychoactive substances for international control

2009-12-17T00:00:00+00:00

The 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, entrust the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence of the World Health Organization (WHO) with the res ...

TNI Expert Seminar on the Classification of Controlled Substances

2011-05-03T10:58:42+00:00

The classification of drugs has a profound impact on the lives and well-being of individuals across the world and where the classification is incorrect, people suffer unnecessarily. This is an issue ...

Estimating drug harms: a risky business?

2009-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

No one is suggesting that drugs are not harmful. The critical question is one of scale and degree. We need a full and open discussion of the evidence and a mature debate about what the drug laws are ...

Ranking van drugs

2009-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

In its report Ranking of drugs: A comparison of the harmful effects of drugs, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) has performed a risk assessment on the harmful effect ...

Risk assessment of new psychoactive substances

2009-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

The principal aim of these guidelines is to put in place a sound methodological and procedural basis for carrying out each risk assessment. The risk assessment has regard to the health and social ris ...

Risk assessment of khat use in the Netherlands

2012-01-10T22:28:37+00:00

In preparing a decision about the legal status of khat in the Netherlands, the Dutch Minister of Health requested CAM (Coordination point Assessment and Monitoring new drugs) to assess the overall ri ...

Cannabis: Classification and Public Health

2008-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reviewed the classification of cannabis in the light of real public concern about the potential mental health effects of cannabis use and, in particular, t ...

MDMA (‘ecstasy’)

2008-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Due to its prevalence of use, MDMA is a significant public health issue. The Council believes that criminal justice measures will only have limited effect and strongly advises the promulgation of pub ...

Development of a rational scale to assess the harm of drugs of potential misuse

2007-03-24T00:00:00+00:00

Drug misuse and abuse are major health problems. Harmful drugs are regulated according to classification systems that purport to relate to the harms and risks of each drug. However, the methodology a ...