A presidential decree created the National Narcotics Control Bureau on 16 November 1997 to coordinate prevention, treatment and international liaison. The state drug rehabilitation centre opened the same year, while police and customs kept responsibility for seizures. The bureau gave the Maldives a permanent drug-policy body at a time when heroin use was rising and cannabis was already illegal.[1]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Maldives here.
References
- UNODC — South Asia Regional Profile 2005: MaldivesSection 5(a), pp. 82–85: NNCB decree of 16 November 1997 and the 1997 rehabilitation centrearchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.