3 - Creating the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, 1945–1946

Summary

This chapter charts the occasionally tense inter- and intra-governmental infighting surrounding the creation of the UN drug control system. It highlights the key institutional, legal and geopolitical issues as well as foundational member state divisions over market control, regulatory reach and legal enforcement capabilities. The deep regulatory and oversight structures of the League treaty system were transferred wholesale, with no formal wartime interruption. However, reconstruction of the political apparatus proved a much more contested issue. Strict control advocates in the US pushed the creation of a more uniform, stringent and enforcement-oriented system. The majority of states, however, simply aimed for conservatism and continuity with the League drug apparatus. They were supported in this aim by the US State Department which sought to minimise areas of disagreement within the fledgling UN organisation. Drug control was far from a strategic or geopolitical post-war priority and entrenched interests among producing states and colonial powers remained. Astride the enormous economic, social and political challenges facing the post-war world, a consensus-oriented system appeared the path of least resistance for most, including the US State Department.