Article 25

CONTROL OF POPPY STRAW

1. A Party that permits the cultivation of the opium poppy for purposes other than the production of opium shall take all measures necessary to ensure:
(a) That opium is not produced from such opium poppies; and (b) That the manufacture of drugs from poppy straw is adequately controlled.
2. The Parties shall apply to poppy straw the system of import certificates and export authorizations as provided in article 31, paragraphs 4 to 15.
3. The Parties shall furnish statistical information on the import and export of poppy straw as required for drugs under article 20, paragraphs 1 (d) and 2 (b).

Commentary

1. The opium poppy is cultivated for opium or for its seeds or both, but not exclusively for its straw. 1 Cultivation of the poppy solely for its straw would not be economical. Until the discovery of an economically feasible method for the extraction of morphine from poppy straw in Hungary in the nineteen-twenties, the straw was an agricultural waste product which was burned, or at best used as stable litter or cattle fodder. With the spread of the manufacture of morphine from the straw, the capsules and stems of the plant have become a marketable by-product of cultivation of the opium poppy, whether undertaken for the seeds or for opium. While the cultivation of the poppy exclusively for its straw would still be uneconomical, the straw can now very often be sold by the cultivator for the manufacture of morphine. According to the statistical data received by the International Narcotics Control Board, 64.2 per cent of world morphine production in 1969 was from opium, 30.4 per cent from poppy straw and 5.4 per cent from concentrate of poppy straw, which in turn is made from poppy straw. 2

2. The third draft of the Single Convention provided for the cultivation of the poppy for straw and for the straw itself the same regime as for opium. 3 The Plenipotentiary Conference found that so strict a regime would be neither justified nor practicable. It was led to this view by the consideration that the straw as such was not liable to particularly dangerous abuse, and was not likely to be employed as raw material by clandestine manufacturers of morphine.

3. The morphine content of the straw of different varieties of the poppy differs, and is moreover greater in the upper parts of the stem, and particularly in the capsules, than in the lower parts. Even with the present advanced methods of morphine extraction employed by legal manufacturers, the average yield of morphine is 0.2 per cent of the quantity of straw used. 4 This means that an average quantity of five hundred kilogrammes of straw is needed for the manufacture of 1 kilogramme of morphine, while generally less than 10 kilogrammes of opium are required for this purpose. Since the straw has only a very low specific weight, relatively voluminous means of transportation and large storage facilities are needed for it. Moreover, the manufacturing process is a difficult one, requiring complicated and expensive apparatus and access to water and energy. It was brought to the attention of the Plenipotentiary Conference that the manufacture of one kilogramme of morphine by the Kabay process, which was one of the simplest, would require among other things 700 to 800 kg of poppy capsules, for which an apparatus including vessels with a total capacity of approximately 10,000 litres would be needed. 5 A plant of the size needed for such activities could hardly be concealed from the authorities, while the extraction of morphine from opium can easily be carried out with simple equipment in a small kitchen. In fact, although the process of extracting morphine from poppy straw has been known for more than four decades, no clandestine manufacture of the drug from this raw material has been discovered, nor has any international illicit traffic of significance in the straw.

4. The great role which poppy straw plays at present in the legal manufacture of morphine makes it, on the other hand, essential for the proper functioning of the national and international statistical accounting system needed for narcotics control that the amounts of poppy straw used for the manufacture of alkaloids 6 be made known to the authorities. While rejecting the application of the full narcotics system to poppy straw, as provided in the Third Draft of the Single Convention, the Plenipotentiary Conference therefore included in the limited regime for poppy straw which it adopted provisions requiring Parties to furnish to the Board statistical data on the quantities of poppy straw which they use for the manufacture of drugs, and on those which they import or export.

5. The regime of the Single Convention applicable to poppy straw is generally based on the corresponding provisions of article 4 of the 1953 Pro tocol. It requires, however, quarterly statistics on the international trade in the straw, while the Protocol provides for this information only on an annual basis. 7 It moreover incorporates some control measures provided in the 1925 and 1931 Conventions, and extends to straw the import certificate and export authorization system of paragraphs 4-15, of article 31 governing drugs. 8

6. Article 25, paragraph 1, subparagraph (a) applies to Parties which prohibit the production of opium, as well as to those which permit it but also authorize some cultivation of the poppy only for the seeds. 9 As regards paragraph 1, subparagraph (b), it may be noted that this provision seems to require only those Parties which permit the cultivation of the opium poppy for purposes other than opium production, to ensure that the manufacture of drugs from poppy straw is adequately controlled. 10 It follows, however, from other provisions of the Single Convention 11 that all Parties have this obligation.

7. As just mentioned, the international trade statistics mentioned in paragraph 3 must be furnished quarterly, as required by the provisions referred to in that paragraph. 12

8. Several provisions of the Single Convention governing poppy straw are not mentioned in article 25. Article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) is
one of them. It requires Parties to furnish to the Board annual statistics on the quantities of poppy straw utilized for the manufacture of drugs. 13 Article 22, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) of the 1925 Convention 14 obligated Parties to furnish to the Permanent Central Board annual statistics not only on the quantities of poppy straw used for the manufacture of drugs, 15 but more generally on the quantities of "raw material" used for that purpose; but at the time of the adoption of the 1925 and 1931 Conventions, no fully synthetic process of the manufacture of narcotics had yet been developed. The term "raw material" as used by these Conventions covered only dangerous substances from which drugs were made, 16 that is, substances which, with the exception of poppy straw, are " drugs" under the terms of the Single Convention. In view of the progress in synthetic chemistry and the development of "synthetic" narcotics, the "raw materials" which are at present used for the manufacture of drugs include substances which are commonly used in chemical synthesis, and which are not dangerous substances whose abuse the international narcotics regime is intended to combat. The Single Convention therefore does not provide for statistical reports on the quantities of "raw materials" used for the manufacture of drugs, but rather requires reports only on the quantities of other drugs and of poppy straw used for drug manufacture. This change represents an adjustment of treaty terminology to new scientific conditions, and by no means a weakening of control or a reduction in the obligations of Parties.

9. Article 29, paragraph 3 of the Single Convention, which is also not mentioned in article 25, requires Parties to prevent the accumulation in the possession of drug manufacturers of quantities of drugs and poppy straw in excess of those required for the normal conduct of business, having regard to the prevailing market conditions. The 1931 Convention provided 17 for a corresponding obligation of Parties to prevent the accumulation of excessive amounts of "raw materials" in the possession of drug manufacturers.

10. Article 25 moreover does not refer to article 30, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a) which requires Parties, in the same terms as those employed in regard to drug manufacturers, to prevent the excessive accumulation of drugs 18 and poppy straw in the possession of authorized traders and other authorized distributors.

11. As regards the question of periodical reports of drug manufacturers on the quantities of drugs and poppy straw held by them, see below, comments on article 29, paragraph 3.

12. It will be noted that the estimate system of the Single Convention does not apply to poppy straw.

13. Poppy straw, not being a "drug", cannot be an object of the "illicit traffic" as this term is defined in the Single Convention. Parties seem therefore not to be required to apply articles 35 to 37 to the unauthorized import or export of poppy straw.

14. Generally speaking, it may be said that the Single Convention controls poppy straw only after it has arrived in a drug factory or entered the international trade. 19

15. For other provisions of the Single Convention, in addition to article 25, article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraphs (b) and (d), article 29, paragraph 3 and article 30, paragraph 2, subparagraph (a), expressly referring to poppy straw, see article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (r) (definition) and article 2, paragraph 7. 20

16. As regards "concentrate of poppy straw", see above, comments on article 1, paragraph 1, subparagraph (j), on article 19, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b) and on article 20, paragraph 1, subparagraph (b).

1 For the definition of poppy straw see article 1, para. 1, subpara. (r); see also article 1 of the 1953 Protocol.

2 Document E/INCB/11, United Nations publication, Sales No. 70.XI.7, table III, pp. 18-21; the corresponding figures for the preceding years are: 61.4, 30.6 and 8 per cent in 1968; 67.6, 24.6 and 8.2 per cent in 1967; and 76.6, 17.2 and 6.2 per cent in 1966.

3 Articles 31-34 and Schedule I, Conference documents E/CN.7/AC.3/9 and Add. 1, Records, vol. 11, pp. 11-13 and 23.
 

4 Document E/INCB/11, United Nations publication, Sales No. 70.XI.7, table 111; the highest yield in 1969 was 0.29 per cent (Hungary) and the lowest 0.1 per cent (Romania).

5 Conference document E/CONF.34/L.34; Records, vol. 11, pp. 66-69; see in particular p. 67; see also vol. 11, pp. 150 and 151 and vol. 1, pp. 37-38.

6 Small quantities of codeine may appear as a by-product in the manufacture of morphine from poppy straw; see also form C/S (4th edition, November 1969), table I (p. 4), column A under the entry "Codeine and its salts".

7Article 4, para. (c).

8 Poppy straw is not a "drug" in the sense of the Single Convention; see above, comments on article 1, para. 1, subpara. (j) and subparas. (p)-(r).

9 See also article 4, para. (a), subpara. (i) of the 1953 Protocol.

10 See also article 4, para. (b), subpara. (ii) of the 1953 Protocol.

11 Article 4, para. 1, subpara. (c), article 20, para. 1, subparas. (a) and (b), article 21, para. 1, article 29, article 34 and articles 35-37 in connexion with article 1, para. 1, subpara. (n).

12 Article 20, para. 1, subpara. (d) itself also states that it applies to poppy straw; article 31, paras. 4-15 however do not refer to poppy straw. The application of these paragraphs is extended to poppy straw by article 25, para. 2.

13 In connexion with para. 2, subpara. (a).

14 See also article 13 of the 1931 Convention.

15 As regards "poppy straw" being a "raw material" within the meaning of article 22, para. 1, subpara. (b) of the 1925 Convention and articles 16 and 17 of the 1931 Convention, see Commentary on the 1931 Convention, para. 175, pp. 200-201,

16 Principally raw opium, coca leaves and cannabis and cannabis resin, and to a very limited extent poppy straw; see chapter B of the Form of Annual Reports for the Use of Governments, prepared by the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs; League of Nations document O.C. 1600, reproduced as annex VII, in Bertil A. Renborg, International Drug Control, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, 1947. At the time of the adoption of the 1931 Convention (but not of the 1925 Convention) the process of extracting morphine from poppy straw had already been discovered, but still played only a minor role in the manufacture of narcotics. Poppy straw was considered by the League's Advisory Committee on the Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs to be a "raw material" within the meaning of article 22, para. 1, subpara. (b) of the 1925 Convention and articles 16 and 17 of the 1931 Convention; see Commentary on the 1931 Convention, para. 175 (pp. 200-201). No drugs derived from cannabis or cannabis resin were controlled by the 1931 Convention (or the 1948 Protocol).

17 Article 16, para. 2. What is to be considered excessive is defined in the 1931 Convention in terms somewhat different from those of the Single Convention, particularly as an upper limit is prescribed equal to the requirements for six months or one year respectively.

18 But not of drugs in Schedule II which are held by retail distributors; see article 30, para. 6.

19 Records, vol. II, p. 150.

20 At the time of this writing the form prepared by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs for annual reports to be furnished by Governments under the 1931 and 1936 Conventions, under the 1953 Protocol and under the Single Convention contains
questions regarding the quantity of poppy straw used for the manufacture of alkaloids, the measures taken for the control of such manufacture, the quantities of poppy straw imported or exported, and, if the reporting Government is not a Party to the Single Convention, whether it applies the import certificate and export authorization system to the international trade in poppy straw; see document E/NR.FORM/Rev.2 (21 March 1966), chapter IX, questions 22 and 23.