The Commission on Narcotics Drugs, a United Nations political organ, meets
every year in Vienna. Country statements from the Commission's general deba
te in 1994 and 1995 are analyzed in terms of their rhetorical framing. The
dominant frame is of drugs as a scourge or menace against which a war must
be waged. There is consensus that the war is being lost. International coop
eration and solidarity are proposed as what will turn the tide; in the cont
ext of a losing battle, calls for decriminalization are seen as an unaccept
able surrender. Fairly uniformly, this rhetorical framing is put forward by
a majority of countries, and no clear alternative framing is presented. Hi
storical resonances of the framing and possible future developments are con
sidered.