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Drug Racket Curbed
A WIDESPREAD black market in
A    illicit drugs and a new outbreak
of international drug smuggling might
easily have grown up in Germany
after the political, economic and mili-
tary collapse of the country if rigid
controls had not been enforced by
direction of the occupying powers.
Drug addiction increases after all
wars. It could have been expected
that increased illicit traffic in narcotic
drugs would be one of the results of
World War II, but through strict exe-
cution of international conventions
concluded between 1912 and 1931,
governments have endeavored to cope
with the problem adequately.
US Military Government acted to
establish narcotic control in the Amer-
ican occupied area in 1945 in order
to discharge the obligations assumed
by the United States under inter-
national agreements for all territory
under its control; to insure adequate
protection of US forces in the Euro-
pean Command; and to prevent our
own and other nations from becom-
ing victims of an unlawful traffic in
narcotic drugs originating in Germany.
Germany's first narcotic  control
laws were enacted as a result of the
international conference on narcotic
control held at Geneva in 1925. Prior
to that time the exportation of nar-
cotics from most European countries
was unrestricted. The illicit drug
traffic and the smuggling of drugs
were organized internationally on a
formidable scale, and the situation
was so critical that some drastic reg-
ulation had to be instituted.
Germany was always a leading
manufacturer and exporter of nar-
cotics, and leakages of large quant-
ities of drugs from the country into
illegal channels occurred. There was
no limitation of drug manufacture, and
no system of import export licenses.
The Geneva Convention of 1925 in-
troduced requirements for import and
export certificates covering all inter-
national shipments, and for controlled
drug manufacture, and established the
Permanent Central Opium Board to
watch the course of international
trade and draw up global statistics
on the manufacture and consumption
of dangerous drugs.
T HE GERMAN Opium Law of 1929
lembodied the provisions of the
Geneva Convention and, as amended
following the signing of the Inter-
national Limitation Convention of 1931
by Germany, was reasonably effective
until the German surrender in May
1945. Late in 1945 the Allied Controi
Authority restored the law to effect in
all the zones of occupation.
Narcotic control offices, set up in
the capitals of all the states of
occupied Germany, began functioning
efficiently despite a lack of experienc-
ed personnel. All regional narcotic
control offices in the US Zone came
under the supervision of public health
and public safety officers of Military
Government.
Similar supervision was instituted
in the other zones, although imple-
mentation of the opium law differed
in detail in the various zones. A
quadripartite Narcotics Working Party
of the Allied Health Committee strove
to iron out differences and to compile
reports covering  narcotics control
throughout Germany.
Under current procedures, German
public health inspectors make periodic
inspections of premises of wholesalers
and druggists to check compliance
with the opium law and report their
findings to the land opium offices.
Narcotic drugs are supplied to the
legal trade solely on the basis of order
forms which require the approval of
the state opium offices, and are care-
fully checked by them to insure that
the drugs are needed for medical or
scientific purposes. Manufacturers and
wholesalers are required to submit
quarterly inventories of their stocks
of narcotic drugs to the state opium
offices.
The indigenous supply of narcotic
drugs for medical and scientific needs
in Germany is adequate. The factories
have a full production potential.
Morphine is now largely manufactur-
ed from dried poppy capsules and
poppy straw from crops grown in Ger-
many, and no imports of crude opium
are required.
I NTERZONAL transactions in nar-
l cotic drugs require the approval of
the state opium offices concerned and
the narcotics officer of the Public
Health Branch of Military Govern-
ment in the US Zone. Approval of the
other Allied narcotic control officers
is required in all cases involving
A hypodermic case containing 40 morphine tablets and two marihuana
cigarettes is shown concealed by black marketeers in the arm rest of
an automobile door.                              (IA & C Div. photo)
MARCH 9, 1948