I move:—
That the Seanad approves of the International Convention for limiting the manufacture and regulating the distribution on Narcotic Drugs, and Protocol of Signature, signed at Geneva on the 13th day of July, 1931, a copy of which was laid on the Table of the Seanad on the 11th day of April, 1933, and recommend the Executive Council to take the necessary steps to accede to the said International Convention and Protocol of Signature.
No doubt everybody is aware of the harm that has been done for many years past by certain people who took too many narcotic drugs. Several international agreements were made at different times, but none of them, however, was very effective. The agreement to which the motion refers is calculated to be much more effective than any of the others. For the information of Senators, I will go into a little detail with regard to the convention on the limitation of manufacture of drugs.
Chapter I contains a series of definitions. The list of drugs to which the Convention applies is understood to be as complete as the experts at the Conference could make it. It renders the evasion of the Convention by the invention of new drugs extremely difficult, if not impossible. The list covers all known derivatives of opium and the coca leaf, and the Convention provides that new products from these substances cannot be put on the market unless under certain conditions.
Chapter II relates to estimates. The parties to the Convention undertake to furnish to the permanent Central Board annual estimates, accompanied by explanations of their medical and scientific requirements in respect of each of the drugs. On these estimates, which will be strictly supervised by the Central Body, the annual amount of drugs for world manufacture will be calculated.
Chapter III is the most interesting chapter, inasmuch as for the first time provision is made for a regulated limitation of manufacture of narcotic drugs to the medical and scientific needs of the world. This, therefore, fills the gap left by the Opium Convention of 1912, which organised the national control of the internal trade in narcotic drugs, and by the Convention of 1925, which went further than the 1912 Convention by providing for the control of the international trade by means of a system of importation and exportation permits, leaving, however, the problem of limitation of manufacture unprovided for. This Bill is to extend those provisions.
The additional statistics required to be furnished to the Central Body by the contracting parties under Chapter II are also important. In the opinion of experts, accurate and complete statistical reports of the world-wide movement of narcotic drugs provide one of the best regulatory devices. In the Convention of 1925 there is a number of statistical loopholes. These loopholes are filled up by the provisions of the present Convention, and the work of the Central Board will be made much more effective if the Convention on limitation comes into force. For this reason, as well as by reason of the progress envisaged by the limitation provisions themselves, it is very desirable that the Convention of 1931 should be ratified by the 13th April by enough countries to bring it into effect on the 13th July, 1933, the date mentioned in the Protocol of Signature.
The Senators will be aware that, under Article 30, the Convention requires the ratifications or accessions of at least 25 States before it can come into force. It is proposed that the Irish Free State shall be one of those States, for, although we are not a manufacturing country in so far as narcotic drugs are concerned, and, happily, we are not afflicted with the drug problem, it is essential, if the Permanent Control Board is to be placed in the position of exercising effective control of the illicit traffic, that all countries, whether directly affected by the problem or not, should undertake the obligations of this Convention, which is of course of a purely humanitarian and social character. The legislation necessary to give full effect to the provisions of the Convention in the Irish Free State is being prepared by the Minister for Justice. I therefore move that this Convention be agreed to.
