The International Opium Commission was a meeting convened on February 1 to February 26, 1909 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

that represented one of the first steps toward international

drug prohibition The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the ...

. Dr.

Hamilton Wright Hamilton Kemp Wright (2 August 1867 9 January 1917) was an American physician and pathologist who served as the United States Opium Commissioner. Biography Early life Hamilton Wright was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 2, 1867. He graduated ...

and Episcopal Bishop

Charles Henry Brent Charles Henry Brent (April 9, 1862 – March 27, 1929) was the Episcopal Church's first Missionary Bishop of the Philippine Islands (1902–1918); Chaplain General of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I (1917–1918); and Bishop of th ...

headed the U.S. delegation. Brent was elected president of the commission. According to Release, "The formal designation of the meeting as 'commission' reflects the fact that the United States had been unsuccessful in its attempts to convene a 'conference': this latter status would have conferred upon the meeting the power to draft regulations to which signatory states would be bound by international la

The commission was only authorized to make recommendations. According to Paul Samuel Reinsch, Paul S. Reinsch, the commission made these suggestions in its final resolution:

It is the duty of all countries to adopt reasonable measures to prevent the departure of shipments of opium to any country which prohibits its entry; that drastic measures should be taken by each government in its own territories to control the manufacture, sale, and distribution of the drug; that all governments possessing settlements in China shall take effective action toward the closing of opium divans in the said settlements.

The meeting united the attending nations behind the cause of

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

prohibition, leading to the 1912

International Opium Convention The expression International Opium Convention refers either to the first International Opium Convention signed at The Hague in 1912, or to the second International Opium Convention signed at Geneva in 1925. First International Opium Convention ...

References

UK Drugs and UK Drug Laws: 1900-1939

References

{{Authority control Drug policy organizations Drug control treaties 1909 in China 1909 in law 1909 in international relations 20th-century diplomatic conferences Diplomatic conferences in China History of Shanghai

See also

References

References