The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) was established in 1968 as the monitoring body for the implementation of the United Nations international drug control conventions. Tensions have arisen about the way the INCB performs its duties and about its legal interpretation of the conventions which many feel goes beyond its mandate.

  • INCB Watch

    incb-watchThe objective of INCB Watch is to promote the transparency and accountability of the International Narcotics Control Board, by publishing news, publications and commentary about its activities.

    Go to the INCB Watch website

  • IDPC response to the INCB Annual Report for 2016

    Dave Bewley-Taylor & Christopher Hallam
    International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)
    September 2017

    idpc incb 2016The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) Annual Report for 2016 is, as usual, a mixed bag of high quality data and sometimes doubtful political views. It is the final Report of the Presidency of Mr. Werner Sipp, and as such represents a comparatively progressive text, in contrast to many previous Reports. Despite this, the general – if ambivalent – acceptance of medical uses of internationally controlled drugs is contrasted by the Board’s continuing defence of the conventions in their current form and their opposition to any non-medical use. As evidenced within the Report for 2016, it seems certain that in this post-UNGASS/pre-2019 period, one of the Board’s key predicaments will be how to deal with the issue of regulated markets for the recreational use of cannabis and their operation beyond the confines of the current treaty framework.

    Download the report (PDF - outside link)

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  • IDPC response to the 2015 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board

    International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)
    September 2016

    idcp-incb2015The Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB or Board) for 2015 is, like the broader international drug policy debate, coloured by what was then the approaching United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the world drug problem of April 2016. A number of key themes are reflected in the Report, including the abolition of the death penalty for drug-related offences; the defence of the international drug control conventions, and the availability of controlled drugs for medical and scientific uses. This might be summarised in what the President terms in his Foreword ‘the right way in drug policy’.

    application-pdfDownload the report (PDF)

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  • The other opioid crisis – people in poor countries can’t get the pain medication they need

    The INCB worried that too many opioid prescriptions could lead to abuse
    The Conversation (US)
    Friday, March 25, 2016

    Hospitals in the U.S. and Europe routinely prescribe opioids for chronic cancer pain, end-of-life palliative care and some forms of acute pain, like bone fractures, sickle cell crises and burns. But patients with these conditions in much of Asia, Africa and Latin America often receive painkillers no stronger than acetaminophen. Many factors play into this crisis, but I would argue that the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent monitoring agency established by the U.N., is a fundamental cause of untreated pain in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

  • IDPC response to the 2014 Annual Report of the International Narcotics Control Board

    International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)
    October 2015

    idpc-incb-2104The advent of regulated cannabis markets in Uruguay and some US states over the past few years has constituted a profound shock to the international drug control regime, with the differing views representing a fragmentation of the drug control regime. This has been largely met with a collective denial, not only in relation to cannabis but to Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS), the internet, access to essential medicines, the centrality of health and human rights in drug control, and the fast-approaching 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs.

    application-pdfDownload the report (PDF - outside link)

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  • Dr. Lochan Naidoo - A frank conversation about drugs

    International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policies (IDHDP)
    Monday, March 30, 2015

    The President of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Dr Lochan Naidoo, became a member of International Doctors for Healthier Drug Policies (IDHDP) while attending CND 2015 in Vienna and calls his colleagues to assume a core role in drug policy, which should be considered a health issue.

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