The first members were Canada, Chinese Taipei, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Turkey, the UK, US, USSR, and Yugoslavia.

[5] At first, CND's mandate was to assist ECOSOC in supervising the application of international conventions and agreements dealing with narcotic drugs.

[15] The main policy documents of the preceding decade are the 2009 Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem,[16] the Joint Ministerial Statement of the 2014 high-level review by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs of the implementation by Member States of the Political Declaration and Plan of Action[17] and the outcome document of the thirtieth special session of the General Assembly, entitled "Our joint commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem".

[20] The CND, performing its duties as a governing body, adopts during its regular sessions resolutions[21] to provide policy guidance and monitors the activities of the UNODC.

[22] It further approves, based on a proposal of the executive director, the budget of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, administered by the UNODC.

[26] Notwithstanding the rules of procedure, the Commission usually adopts decisions by consensus in the "Vienna spirit" that has been described by Yuri Fedotov (former UNODC Executive-Director) as: "the willingness and dedication of all concerned to pull together to find joint solutions, even on the most difficult topics".

[31] Nonetheless, the CND sometimes disregards both ECOSOC rules of procedure and treaty-based requirements, as was the case during the considerations of WHO recommendations on cannabis and cannabis-related substances.