In the early 1990s, CCSA was invited by Health Canada to be part of the Canadian delegation to annual meetings of the
Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), the United Nations’ central policy body, or world "parliament", for drug issues. CCSA's participation in CND annual meetings as part of the Canadian delegation has continued ever since and in recent years has become more and more substantial.
The CND is responsible for overseeing application of the three international drug Conventions (
1961 Single Convention amended in 1972, the
1971 Convention on Pyschotropic Substances and the
1988 Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) that underpin the UN’s drug control system, and for recommending changes to international drug control machinery and drafting new conventions.
Other bodies that are integral to the UN’s drug control system include the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which functions as a secretariat to the CND and to the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and the
International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent quasi-judicial control and monitoring body for the drug Conventions (
United Nations organizational structure)
In 2007, CCSA was granted special consultative status by the
United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the body that controls access to the CND. Fifty-four member states are elected to the CND by ECOSOC for a three-year term. ECOSOC serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system.