In annex of the three international treaties framing the drug laws and policies of countries, a set of lists, the schedules, include the whole panoply of products and substances that human recent history has placed «under control», unduly designated as «illegal drugs».

In appearance inconsequential and irrelevant, the schedules – and their absolute lack of meaningful scientific methodology – actually reflect the unstopped geopolitical struggles that have been shaping the international drugs categorification during the XXst Century.

Before 1961, every substance needed its own international multilateral agreement to be placed under control, that each country could decide to endorse or no. Incredible simplification tool, the schedules (at first introduced in a former 1931 treaty, later become pivotal with the adoption of the 1961 Convention on narcotic drugs) allow countries to add or withdraw drugs from the scope of international control and to automatically apply the related control measures to all States signatories to the latter Convention.

This paper will briefly define the schedules and their role, summarize the content of both the 1961 and the 1971 Conventions schedules, and explore the measures of control that the 1961 Convention implies for countries.