Six decades ago, the international community came together in its concern about the health and welfare of humankind to discuss the indispensable role of narcotic drugs for the relief of pain and suffering while at the same time acknowledging the public health problem of drug dependence. It decided to bring all the efforts made in the previous bilateral and multilateral treaties into a single unified system of international drug control. The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was drafted to ensure effective international control over the licit movement of narcotic drugs in the world from production, manufacture and trade to distribution and consumption. Ten years later, the international community came together again in the same spirit to address the problem of psychotropic substances and developed a similar system of monitoring and control. This approach, which was based on the concept of common and shared responsibility, remains central to the international control system that is in place today.