[2] It plays an important role in monitoring the production and trade of narcotics and psychotropics, as well as their availability for medical and scientific purposes, and in deciding which precursors should be regulated.
Articles 12 and 19[2] of the same Convention give the Board the responsibility of reviewing, confirming, or requesting changes to the annual estimates of needs for narcotic drugs among Parties concerning licit cultivation, production, manufacture, export, import, distribution and trade, with the objective of preventing diversion of drugs from licit sources into the illicit traffic.
INCB has been criticized for claiming being a "quasi-judicial" body whereas neither the three drug control Conventions nor ECOSOC resolutions provide it with such a mandate.
In September 2022, Virginia Patton Prugh, Attorney Advisor at the United States Department of State, declared on the occasion of an intersessional meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs:[9]Reviewing the many sources discussing INCB mandates, one would assume that the INCB has been designated to sit in judgement of MS in their effort to implement the treaties.
[23] INCB Learning addresses the barriers to adequate availability of indispensable narcotic and psychotropic substances required for medical treatments, particularly by raising awareness and providing training.
The Board recognized early on that the alarming increase in overdose deaths from non-medical synthetic opioids threatened to become a global challenge.
The OPIOIDS Project supports national authorities and international organizations' efforts in preventing nonmedical synthetic opioids and fentanyl-related substances from reaching people, by: Project ION (International Operations on NPS)[25] is the operational initiative of INCB, supporting national authorities' efforts in preventing non-scheduled new psychoactive substances (NPS) of abuse from reaching consumer markets.
Project ION activities are primarily engaged in the coordination, collection and communication of strategic and operational information related to suspicious shipments of, trafficking in, or manufacture or production of NPS.
A specific focus is on synthetic NPS with little or no known medical, scientific or industrial uses and our activities are primarily engaged in the coordination, collection and communication of strategic and operational information.
In recent years, voluntary public-private partnerships[26] have come to play an increasingly important role in global precursor control.
In this context, the concept aims at preventing the diversion of chemicals for illicit purposes, through cooperation between national authorities and the private sector.
[1] The position that the INCB is not a "quasi-judicial" body had been defended by governments,[9] civil society organisations,[10][27] and scholars[11][12][13] for a number of years.
[27] The move to a more political role combined with a very rigid interpretation of the drug control conventions, passing judgement on states, is considered problematic.
In April 2003, former UNODC Chief of Demand Reduction Cindy Fazey penned a scathing review of the Board, accusing it of overstepping its bounds:[29]Unfortunately these individuals also see their role not only as the guardians of the conventions, but also the interpreters of them as well.
A survey undertaken in the United Kingdom found that as many as 94 per cent of children believed that cannabis was a legal substance or even some type of medicine.
The survey also discovered that nearly 80 per cent of teachers in the United Kingdom believed that the recent reclassification of cannabis would make educating pupils about the dangers of drug abuse more challenging and difficult.
(Paragraph 499[30]) Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Bob Ainsworth responded:[31]The comments made in your report, your selective and inaccurate use of statistics, and failure to refer to the scientific basis on which the UK Government's decision was based all add up to an ill-informed and potentially damaging message.
The Board's president, Hamid Ghodse, opined:[33]INCB has for many years pointed out that the evidence that cannabis might be useful as a medicine is insufficient.
The INCB has published several special reports on the availability of opiates for medical needs, going back to 1989 and 1995[40] and has repeatedly called for urgent global action to address the situation.
Currently millions of people are suffering due to a mounting global shortage of opium-based painkillers such as morphine and codeine, especially in the developing world.
[46][12] In December 2021, a group of 181 non-governmental organizations wrote to the Secretary-General of the United Nations to express concerns about the need for human rights due diligence in the work of the Board related to cannabis.
[36][10] Many observers and stakeholders have criticized the lack of transparency, accountability, and mechanisms for participation in INCB work, contrary to other United Nations system entities.
[47] In 2010, a report of the London School of Economics noted, "INCB remains perhaps the most closed and least transparent of any entity supported by the United Nations.