The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs was adopted by a United Nations conference in New York on March 30, 1961, and opened for signature. This international treaty consolidated previous drug control agreements and established the International Narcotics Control Board to monitor compliance. It sought to limit the possession, production, and distribution of drugs to medical and scientific purposes, creating the global framework for drug prohibition.

The Single Convention is the foundational document of global drug prohibition, a system that has been challenged and explored in international literature. Poets and writers from countries affected by the war on drugs, such as the Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, have used their work to protest the violence and injustice perpetuated by this treaty regime, making it a central subject of contemporary human rights poetry.