International Narcotics Control Board Annual Report 2023 highlighted the increased availability of Drugs due to widespread use of the Internet.

International Narcotics Control Board Annual Report 2023

1. The INCB Annual Report 2023 examines the global drug control situation and makes recommendations to governments and regional and international organizations.
2. Theme of the INCB Annual Report for 2023: - Role of the Internet, including social media, in drug trafficking and use.
3. It investigates the problems and potential for drug control, prevention, and treatment in the Internet era, with a focus on online drug trafficking.

Highlights: -

1. 1. Using social media and other online platforms, drug traffickers can reach a vast global audience.
   2. Various conventional social media sites are exploited as local marketplaces, and children and teenagers have easy access to improper content.
   3. Illicit Internet pharmacies that sell medications without a prescription directly to customers jeopardize patient safety.
   4. In many regions of the world, there is insufficient inexpensive morphine to meet medical demands.

Recommendations: -

1. 1. INCB recommends governments to utilize simplified control measures in such instances to assure the uninterrupted provision of essential drugs.
   2. Governments, international organizations, regulatory bodies, and the business sector must work together more effectively.
   3. Telemedicine and Internet pharmacies have the potential to increase healthcare access and expand drug treatment services to a larger population.
   4. Governments can use social media platforms to implement drug-use prevention campaigns, particularly among young people.

About International Narcotics Control Board

1. The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) is an impartial, quasi-judicial monitoring organization.
2. It seeks to execute the United Nations' international drug control conventions.
3. It was formed in 1968 in compliance with the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961. 
4. It had precedents in prior drug control treaties dating back to the League of Nations.

Functions of INCB are laid down in the following treaties: 

1. 1. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961
   2. Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971
   3. United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988.

Headquarters: Vienna, Austria

 

Must Check: Best IAS Coaching In Delhi