Federal Opium Agency
The Bundesopiumstelle (Federal Opium Agency) is one of 13 departments at the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. It was set up in 1952 to succeed the Opium Department which in turn had been established following the International Opium Convention of 1912. Hence the obviously historically motivated name "Federal Opium Agency".Its four subdivisions, each headed by a pharmacist, are run by a staff of about 50 scientists, civil servants and administrative and clerical staff.
The trade in narcotics and psychotropics is regulated by the Narcotics Act of 1981 as well as in the subsequent orders (i.e.: Order concerning the Foreign Trade in Narcotic Drugs, Order concerning the Domestic Trade in Narcotic Drugs, Narcotic Drugs Prescription Order) and the trade in precursors by the Regulations (EC) No 273/2004, 111/2005 and 1277/2005 and the Precursors Monitoring Act.
The agency's major tasks are the following:
- granting general licences to trade in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors,
- supervising the trade in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors among licence holders (manufacturers, traders, importers, exporters, cultivators and scientific institutions) by checking the reports under Section 18 of the Narcotics Act and Article 17 ff of the Regulation (EC) No 1277/2005 and inspecting manufacturing sites, trading enterprises and storage facilities,
- issuing import and export authorisations for narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances,
- granting import and export authorisations for precursors,
- designing special prescription forms for narcotic drugs, distributing these forms among medical practitioners and evaluating the doctor's prescribing behaviour,
- maintaining a data base, also referred to as a substitution register,
- supplying statistical returns and regular reports to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) in Vienna concerning the use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes in Germany, and reports on the nature and extent of international trade into which Germany is involved.
- supplying reports to the European Commission on the nature and scope on across- border trade in precursors.
Those running a chemist's shop or a veterinary medicinal store do not require a general licence as defined in the Narcotics Act. However, they must notify the Federal Opium Agency in writing beforehand that they are engaged in the trade with narcotics. Following notification, they receive confirmation together with a narcotics number which allows them to trade.Under an official notification of 9 th December 2002 (Federal Law Gazette I, page 26345) the Federal Opium Agency is named as the national contact agency for the implementation of the decision of the Council of the European Union concerning the transfer of samples of controlled substances.