Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND)

The Cannabis Embassy coordinates CND attendance since 2024. CND had been attended continously by our teams  prior to the Proclamation of the Cannabis Embassy, since 2008.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) is an assembly of countries meeting, in the framework of the United Nations, in relation to these three drug control treaties. Formally, the CND is a subsidiary body of the UN ECOSOC (Economic & Social Council). As such, it it is also the main political and decision-making body on matters related to drug within the United Nations.

Furthermore, the CND has in part the role of a “treaty-mandated body” because some international treaties –the 3 International Drug Control Conventions (IDCC)– vested the Commission with specific mandates.

The CND meets every year in March for its main session, during one week. There is also a “reconvened session” (CND-R) in December (1 day and a half) which serves mostly for administrative and budgetary matters. In recent years, the CND has added a series of informal “inter-sessional meeting” (generally 2 or 3 days) focused on thematic discussions.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) acts as the Secretariat to the CND, and hosts the Commission’s meetings in its buildings, in Vienna (Austria). The UNODC also carries its own treaty-mandated roles (the IDCC mandate the Secretary-General, who then delegates his/her mandate to the UNODC).

The two other Treaty-mandated bodies under the IDCC are the INCB and the WHO.