CONTENTS: Number: Pages: 1. Introduction 2-4 Chapter 1. Concept, Manifestations and Tendencies of Drug Abuse 4-14 2. The Concept and Manifestation of Drug Abuse 4-11 3. Tendencies of Development 11-14 Chapter II. System and Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse 14-22 4. System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse 14-17 5. Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse 17-22 Chapter III. Drug Abuse in the International Law 22-38 6. International Fora and Legal Acts on Drugs 22-34 7. Tendencies in the World Community's Reaction to Drug Abuse. 34-37 Chapter IV. Measures to Suppress and Prevent Drug Abuse 37-40 Chapter V. Organized Measures to Counteract Narcotics 40-57 8. General Provisions for Counteracting Narcotics 41-45 9. Organization of Medical Counteraction to Narcotics 45-49 10. Enforcement of Legal Measures of Narcotics Counteraction 50-53 11. Other Organizational Measures to Combat Narcotics 53-57 12. Conclusion 57-58
    
     Introduction
    The 20th century has witnessed the spread of narcotics to the entire world. In the past narcotics in the natural economy were confined to territories where drug-bearing plants were grown. By the end of century drug addiction has become a worldwide socially dangerous trend.
    Narco-dealers making fabulous profits infect more and more people and even entire social groups with drug addiction. Narcotics have long since gone beyond the borders of traditional drug-producing areas and have infiltrated all the countries of the world, exerting its malicious effect on their peoples. It has affected social, economic, political and biological aspects of life.
    Statistics is constantly reporting the spread of drug addiction and the growth in the number of drug addicts on file at medical institutions, as well as the rise in officially recorded drug-related crimes.
    Drug abuse has become a real plague of the 20th century in many countries of the world and may become the plague of this country in particular.
    The pleasurable sensations of comfort and satisfaction that a person experiences using narcotics is much greater than that of alcohol thus making the repetition necessary. Consequently, dependence on drugs and the desire to enlarge the dose or experiment with the new and more powerful drugs increases. Gradually the desire for dope becomes so overwhelming that it degrades the addict's individuality. The transition from experimentation to dependence is no longer a secret for it has been studied thoroughly. Profit seeking dealers expand the drug market at any cost by supplying drugs to more and more addicts taking advantage of their weaknesses.
    Drug sales are the closing stage in drug trafficking. Drug trade earns huge profits that cover the costs of cultivating drug-bearing plants, producing (or illegally acquiring from medical institutions) transportation, sale expenses, and the bribery of officials, including those of the law enforcement agencies. Since illegal drug trafficking is extremely advantageous in terms of illegal profit accumulation and so harmful and immoral it must be regarded by the entire world community as a socially dangerous phenomenon. Some countries qualify its certain manifestations as a heinous crime.
    Throughout this century international organizations have been paying much attention to actions against drug abuse. For example, in 1909 the Shanghai Opium Commission approved documents to restrict drug trafficking between countries. The international opium conference held in the Hague between 1911 and 1912 worked out, for the first time in history, the drug convention of 1912. The conference on opium held in Geneva between 1924 and 1925 approved, on February 11, 1925, an Agreement under which opium was made a government monopoly. The second Geneva conference on opium passed a convention on February 19, 1925, under which narcotics were to be produced only for the purpose of meeting the countries' legal demand for them. Besides this convention stipulated the extension of the list of drugs. On July 13, 1931, an international convention limiting the production of drugs and regulating their distribution was approved in Geneva. It came into force in 1933. A convention of actions against the illegal trade in hard drugs was signed in Geneva on June 26, 1936. It made international prosecution for drug-related crimes possible and introduced punishments for such crimes compared with the previous conventions.
    In 1946, the UN Economic and Social Council passed a resolution that provided for the international drug control and for the establishment of a drug commission for this purpose. On November, 19 1946, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 54/1 which endorsed a Protocol on Drugs. It was signed at Lake Success on December 11, 1946. At the initiative of the Drug Commission, a protocol extending the international control over drugs set forth by the 1931 convention, was signed at the third UN General Assembly session in Paris on November 19, 1948. ............