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.