Similar to controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, precursors and chemicals often appear under a wide range of names in commerce and technical literature. This makes the work of national and international drug control authorities more complex. To support these efforts, a series of multilingual dictionaries have been developed.

The first multilingual list of controlled substances was published in 1958, focusing only on narcotic drugs. In 1983, the first edition of the Multilingual Dictionary of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances under International Control (MLD) was...