Approach

This study intends to present a transnational historiography based essentially on primary research in archived materials gathered in 2016, 2018 and 2019 (LoN archives, UN and WHO libraries in Geneva, UN Archives at Vienna, Dag Hammarskjöld Library remotely). Additional documents and correspondence was yielded in 2017 and 2018 at the Université de Paris (Sainte-Geneviève Library; “Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de santé” rue de l’Observatoire), the Libraries of the Académie des Sciences/Institut de France, Académie Nationale de Médecine, Académie Nationale de Pharmacie, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, and French Diplomatic Archives, at former OIHP headquarters (195 boulevard Saint-Germain) and Belgian Diplomatic Archives. In a second stage (2020–2022), literature searches were undertaken to attempt discussing the findings within the intertextuality of the new transnational historiographies of the international drug control regime complex.
In addition to documenting the 1935 Cannabis episode, this article seeks to contribute to the study of the history of international drug control, by expliciting its structure and organisation at that particular moment. To aid the understanding of a complex and under-documented system, parallels are drawn with the drug control apparatus operating in 2022 throughout the article.