TRANSCRIPT

CENTURY OF LIES

DECEMBER 04, 2019

DEAN BECKER: The failure of the Drug War is glaringly obvious to judges, cops, wardens, prosecutors, and millions more now calling for decriminalization, legalization and the end of prohibition. Let us investigate the Century of Lies.

DOUG MCVAY: Hello and welcome to Century of Lies. I am your host, Doug McVay, Editor of www.drugwarfacts.org.

At the end of November the European Union’s drug monitor agency, The Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) released a 2019 EU Drug Markets Report. This report, which was co-produced by the EMCDDA and Europol. According to the news release, “Covers trends along the supply chain from production and trafficking to distribution and sales. It describes how the drug market has wide ranging impacts on both health and security and how a holistic approach is crucial for affective drug control policies”. Later in the show we are going to hear a portion of the news conference on the report’s release.

One of the items in this report that is of great concern is the increasing number of new psychoactive substances (NPS) on the drug market. Yes, it is an EU drug report but the drug market is global. We don’t talk about NPS very much in the United States and that is a problem. Sure people in the U.S. have heard of fentanyl and know that it is a synthetic opioid but there are dozens of synthetic opioids on the market and the number continues to grow. People in the U.S. have heard of “Spice” and “K2”, which are synthetic cannabinoids but there are dozens of these things these days and I am understating things when I say dozens. By the end of 2018, the European Union was monitoring 731 new psychoactive substances. The number of NPS is currently growing at the rate of one a week and that is a big improvement from 2014 when there were 101 new psychoactive substances detected – that is almost two a week. According to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), 36% of these new psychoactive substances are synthetic stimulants, 30% are synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists which are commonly referred to as synthetic cannabinoids, 15% are classic hallucinogens, 7% are synthetic opioids, 3% are sedatives and hypnotics, 3% are disassociates, and the remaining 5% have yet to be assigned a category – who knows what they are.

Before we get to that EU Drug Report, we are going to hear first from the Chief of UNODCs Drug Prevention and Health Branch, Gilberto Gerra, MD. Dr. Gerra gave a presentation to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs on October 16th during its Intersessional Meeting. Here is Dr. Gilberto Gerra.

DR. GERRA: I start with a question to you and that is are you concerned about stimulants in general. I say that we have to be concerned about depressant of the central nervous system by heroin, opioids, and synthetic opioids. We cannot joke or wish away the stimulants and we cannot (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the problem created by stimulants. The number of stimulants in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) report this year we have presented 68.2 million people using amphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy and only 53 million people using heroin and prescription opioids which means that most of the people exposed to stimulants is larger than that exposure to depressant of the central nervous system and this is not including the new psychoactive substances because most of the families of the new psychoactive substances is a very (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Synthetic cannabinoids have a stronger (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but the service for people affected by Stimulant Use Disorder and NPS are not available or nonexistent. There is nothing offered that is appealing for the patient and the laboratory is unable to detect the substances. We offering only counseling and some psychosocial intervention if you are very lucky. In spite of this, in Sweden 189 cases of drug intoxication in the emergency room or intensive care unit you find that around 50 substances out of these 189 cases is an enormous amount with the 50 substances belonging to the families of the NPS and related stimulants. These drugs – and particularly the NPS – are utilized as adulterants. You buy MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamine, cocaine, methamphetamine. But in reality they are selling you New Psychoactive Substances (UNINTELLIGIBLE). In this case they evaluated 173 samples at the laboratory and they found that in 20 cases there was an association of the classic drugs with NPS. In 49 cases the classic drugs were not there, only NPS were replacing them. There is also some good news from the world of the New Psychoactive Substances. We have interviewed the people using these drugs and they are saying that they like the old stuff better. They are seeking their own cocaine, heroin, and cannabis (UNINTELLIGIBLE) synthetic drugs should produce more depression and more concentration on difficulties as well as fear and anxiety and problems with the legs.
These drugs are deeply affecting the brain simply because they are mimicking the effect of a stimulant neurotransmitter in the brain that releases dopamine. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is very similar to the cut coming from the plant (UNINTELLIGIBLE), it is very similar to dopamine. We find the group within the amphetamine family that are mimicking (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and other stimulants of our brain and we found anti-wormer medication that was used before to treat a worm infection in the intestines. This has been used by illicit traffickers to produce medication that acts as a hallucinogen mimicking the serotonin effect in the brain. The line between legal and illegal drugs is subtle as you will see here with the first two in blue. You see clozapine and alazopene of the pyrazines family are not sold in the illegal market. They are sold in the pharmacy as one of the most modern and effective antipsychotic medication. The other drugs are not usable for these medical purposes and they are sold as ecstasy and considered a stimulant and a hallucinogen in the illicit market. In the family of synthetic cannabinoids that are mimicking THC in the marijuana. It is also mimicking the neurotransmitter in the brain that is a natural, neurological cannabinoid (UNINTELLIGIBLE). In this case with the strong (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not only using (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for cardiovascular disorders. When you see this so-called herbal medicine, it is actually not herbal medicine but a way to present the synthetic cannabinoids that could have problems such as mitochondrial infarction, ischemic stroke, acute kidney failure, and (UNINTELLIGIBLE). When you see young people in the emergency room with cardiovascular symptoms you should think immediately about synthetic cannabinoids. When we have more hallucinogenic NPSs (UNINTELLIGIBLE) coming from “magic” mushrooms.

I want to show you some different settings and party reviews. For example, this NPS is utilized at a rave party where they say no drugs, no party. No NPS – no party. Among this population, 75% of the participants were positive on the toxicology analysis but 36% of the 75% were positive for NPS. This was so-called “recreational” use but there is also no recreational use but more of a self-medication of these substances by children, adolescents, or young adults with a higher level of psychological distress. In Japan there was an increase in the numbers of people using the NPS but they are calling this user a dysfunctional user that is not for recreational use. There is a group of people using these drugs to medicate their lack of capacity to establish friendly relationships. For example, they want to have an increased ability to socialize through these substances. There are sensation seekers who want to feel stronger emotions and we can’t forget that 22% of the admissions in the psychiatric hospitals are positive for NPS, stimulants, and methamphetamine. This use of drugs is going to exacerbate to aggravate the already existing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) psychologies. We have a group of people that consider themselves (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they don’t (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they want to navigate the mind and the soul and better understand. You can call them philosophers, alchemists, psychedelic researchers and these are using the most hallucinogenic NPS. It is sort of a new Shamanism when you can mix the effect of rhythmic music together with substances obtained and modify status of conscious and it is also sort of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) status to look to yourself from outside and understanding an advanced self-knowledge. All of these groups are totally different from a cultural point of view and they need a different approach as the outreach that was done before was totally not valued for this kind of new drugs. For example, new psychoactive substances and methamphetamine are accompanying the mystical beliefs of the range of experiences and the perception of being in an oneness with God and the Universe as well as values of spirit quality. Remember the famous movie, “The Matrix”, where you have two tablets and with the use of the tablets you have the capacity to understand the reality as it is in your reality because the reality you see and your opinion of this group is not the true one. You can have a professor at the university in chemistry and physics want to have an effect on students who want to have effect on brain enhancing, increasing the capacity of their brain and cognitive capacity and that they are using these drugs without considering the consequences. About methamphetamine, you don’t need to travel to East Asia to see methamphetamine. This is very impressive (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in my opinion because you have methamphetamine 34%, which is more than one-third among those who are asking for treatment for a period of time in the United States, so the people are going to say they are heroin dependent, or fentanyl dependent (UNINTELLIGIBLE). More than one-third of them have methamphetamine in their urine which means that these sort of mixed use to balance the effect of opium and living a so-called normal life. The people risking overdose are among those who have opioid dependency in North America. The people are at risk for overdose are 2.8 fold times increase in reported overdose if they at the same time use methamphetamine, which means that these are the most severely affected patients with more risky conditions. We have an increase in our (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The people dependent on methamphetamine almost doubled in the last decade, and you have an increase in fatal auto accidents where there are 89% alcohol and drugs in the blood, as well as a large amount of methamphetamine in their blood. We cannot forget that methamphetamine and using terrible psychology or regulating psychologists – we cannot forget that methamphetamine in the last decade is not only taken orally but it is also injected, provoking terrible endocarditis, or viral endocarditis. In Europe there was a shortage some years ago of heroin so people started injecting methadone and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) provoking a resurgence of HIV in countries where HIV had been at one time defeated. HIV or Hepatitis is also among people who are not injecting, but using methamphetamine (UNINTELLIGIBLE) because of their mental condition they are not having safe sex, they are having unprotected sex. Arrhythmia’s induced by methamphetamine and cardiovascular disorder can be fatal and they want to conclude with lies. As a practitioner when I think of the people affected by heroin, fentanyl, synthetic opioids, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) I think that the depressant of the central nervous system is making my target patient in a certain sense a (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

These people are injecting or using these drugs, sleeping and waking up with a negative effect, regret, and withdrawal searching for new heroin to inject, and sleeping again. Clearly these patients have their personality characteristics and cultural background, but we cannot say that they are equal to each other but they are all (UNINTELLIGIBLE). If you look to what happens when you have to treat or to approach people affected by psychostimulants and NPS, you find this (UNINTELLIGIBLE) from drivers to poly-drug abuse from (UNINTELLIGIBLE) starting from brain enhancing party drugs, mental health problems, unsafe sex, doping in bodybuilding, religious experience and so on. Imagine going out with a normal outreach unit as we think normally. In Europe for example, it would be completely ineffective and we should have a differentiated and personalized and specific approach, taking in to account and tailoring the intervention on the basis of the culture and needs of this population. Thank you for your attention.

DOUG MCVAY: That was Gilberto Gerra, MD., Chief of the UNODC Drug Prevention and Health Branch. He was speaking before the Commission on Narcotic Drugs during its 6th Intersessional Meeting on October 16th. You are listening to Century of Lies, I am your host, Doug McVay, Editor of www.drugwarfacts.org.

DOUG MCVAY: Now let’s turn to that 2019 EU Drugs Market Report. There was a news conference November 26th to discuss the release. Here is EMCDDA Director, Alexis Goosdeel discussing the reports’ findings.

ALEXIS GOOSDEEL: First I would like to thank all of the staff at the EMCDDA and the staff of Europol that have been working for three years collecting information and making all of the analysis. I owe a special thanks to my close colleague Catherine De Bolle who is the Executive Director of Europol for her support and for close and fruitful cooperation.

The report covers trends along the supply chain from production and trafficking to distribution and sales. Today we are going to speak more about the market than about the problems associated with the use of those substances. As the Commissioner said, this puts us in a challenging position because together we launched the previous report. What’s new is that the European Drug Market is changing faster than before both under the influence of internal and external drivers and you will find in the report a very detailed and holistic analysis of those changes. What we observe today is the hyper production of drugs within and beyond EU borders, which is leading to higher availability of natural and synthetic substances. This means that now consumers have access to a diverse range of highly potent and pure products at a very affordable price. As the Commissioner mentioned, a mounting concern is the rising drug related violence and corruption within the EU and this is a very worrying evolution of the situation over the last five years.

First of all, the drug market remains a major source of income for organized crime groups. In the EU we estimate that the Europeans are spending around 30 billion in euros every year for the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It doesn’t encompass the value or the potential values of seizures or any interference with the drug business. Here we talk only about the money that is spent by people who are using drugs in Europe.

Around two-fifths of this total or 39% is spent on cannabis, 31% on cocaine which has now taken second place not only as the second most used drug but also in terms of market value. Heroin is the third with 25%. Finally, amphetamines, methamphetamines, MDMA/Ecstasy represent 5% of that market.

Let’s have a quick look at the key drug markets and put them under the microscope. Cannabis is the largest drug market in Europe worth at least 11.6 billion in Euro, with some 25 million Europeans who have used cannabis at least once in the last year. While cannabis (UNINTELLIGIBLE) still dominate, we see new products that are appearing on the drug market and this makes monitoring of the potency and potential effects essential. We also observed increased violence that is associated with the cannabis business between organized crime groups and this is putting an added strain on law enforcement activities.

Let’s have a look at heroin and other opioids. Opioids still account for the largest proportion of harms associated with drug use and the heroin market is estimated at least 7.4 billion in Euros per year. There are approximately 1.3 million people who are considered to be problem opioid users and are mainly heroin users. Talking about market and trafficking; the Barcon route remains the key corridor for heroin in to the EU, but there are signs of increased heroin trafficking along the southern route particularly through the Suez Canal. There is also evidence of the diversion of the chemical precursors that are needed to produce those drugs and those precursors that are being produced in Europe and they are being smuggled from EU to heroin producing areas. We also noticed, although not in the same proportion, that in the United States there are highly potent synthetic opioids like the fentanyl derivatives that are responsible in the U.S. for the big wave of drug related death, while they represent in Europe a growing health risk, it is still not in the same proportion. These are increasingly (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and dispatched by (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Let’s come now to a drug that has gotten a lot of attention in the recent years, which is cocaine.
There is a record production and corresponding expanding markets for cocaine with a market retail value that is estimated at a minimum of 9.1 billion euros. This is the second most common commodity consumed of the illicit drugs in the EU, we have around 4 million Europeans that report having used the drug in the past year, but you need to add to those people those who have more recently joined and are consuming not only cocaine, but also crack cocaine and there are worrying signs in the increased use of crack cocaine in Europe as well. Use is still concentrated in south and west Europe but the market appears to be spreading, including outside of Europe in places like the Western Balkan’s. Recalled production in Latin America has intensified trafficking to the EU, mainly through maritime containers where RICO seizures have been recorded. The presence of European organized crime groups in Latin America is also changing the dynamic allowing them to manage the supply chain end to end. It is also disrupting the market not only in Europe but in Latin America and there are a lot of changes intervening in the organization of those trafficking routes between the sources and the EU. It seems that the EU is emerging as a transit area for cocaine that is destined to other markets such as Middle Eastern Asia. For amphetamine, methamphetamine, and MDMA the estimated value is 1.5 billion euro a year and they are produced for domestic production and export. They make up for around 5% of the total EU market. More recently, we have noticed that not only the market is controlled but there are also other organized crime groups that are intervening in the market. For instance, Mexican cartels who are controlling the entire logistic chain.

Finally, with regard to the NPS, we discovered 55 new substances which equates to one per week on the European market last year and the source countries are China and India. The total of substances that have been detected and that are monitored by the EMCDDA together with Europol and with the support of other EU agencies amount to 731 substances. The NPS continue to represent a very important threat to health with the potency in synthetic cannabinoids, synthetic opioids, and fake benzodiazepines appearing on the market. These create the surging of more health emergencies such as acute intoxications and death.

Dear Commissioner, Dear Colleagues, Ladies, and Gentleman; the contemporary drug market is increasingly complex, adaptive, and dynamic and it is also more global in nature and more interlinked than in the past. In addition, as the Commissioner highlighted of the direct impact on health and security, the drug market also has indirect and wide ranging negative consequences on other important policy areas, including violence and community safety, economy development and governance, and the environment.

Finally, the human and societal cost associated with the drugs market remain considerable. The reduction of the harm associated with the drug market should remain a priority. If you were to ask me what we can do as well as what was done, as the Commissioner explained we made some good progress in the recent five years, we still have a lot of work in front of us. The work in that area must remain an absolute priority, and this report is a clear wakeup call for policy makers to address the rapidly growing drug market. Our message is that important progress has been made but more needs to be done. At the time we are in a new European Commission, we take its duties in the coming days when the EU and the Member States are discussing the political priorities and actions for the next European budget for 2021 – 2027. We jointly call together with Europol for an upgrade of priorities and resources proportionate to the importance of the emerging threats. Thank you very much.

DOUG MCVAY: That was Alexi Goosdeel, Director of the European Monitoring Center on Drugs and Drug Addiction. He was discussing the 2019 EU Drug Markets Report, which was released on November 26th.

Now while we still have a few minutes left let’s hear from Nuria Calzata, Coordinator of the Spanish Harm Reduction Organization Energy Control.

NURIA CALZATA: Drug checking services are (UNINTELLIGIBLE) marked monitoring tools that are complimentary to other sources of information and their added value lies in the fact they allow contact with hard to reach populations. They not only provide information about the composition but also on other aspects such as acquisition roads, prices, forms of use, experienced problems, and so on. They also allow the early detection of emerging phenomenon of its use and the periods of time of reaction. In the case of NPS, drug checking has made important contributions to the European Early Warning Systems. They inject credibility among drug users and allow early warning to be more effective than official institutions. Finally, they have contributed to the improvement of our knowledge through publications and scientific papers. These are other valued elements have allowed information from drug checking services to be considered by public institutions such as European Monitoring Center or United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. However, we know that drug taking can be controversial like other harm reduction interventions such as supervised consumption rooms, naloxone distributions, or syringe exchange programs. This may be difficult for those countries that despite seeing the relevant drug taking may not want to face a heated debate around them. In any case, our accumulated experience during the last two decades allows us to recommend to other countries the incorporation of drug checking to the monitoring tools with appropriate financing and the integration in the National Health Systems and the encouragement of scientific research to evaluate (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

To conclude, we would like to make a global call for a self-critical reflection. We are agreed that never before in our history have we had so much quantity, quality, and diversity of drugs and the easy access to them. It is clear that we are doing something wrong and yet we continue to insist on the same approaches. It is time for political courage and to take action by applying a number of different strategies without fear of being judged as crazy because as someone once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”.

DOUG MCVAY: That was Nuria Calzata. She was addressing the Conference on Narcotic Drugs on October 16th during its 6th Intersessional Meeting. That is all the time we have this week. I want to thank you for joining us.

You have been listening to Century of Lies, we are a production of the Drug Truth Network for the Pacifica Foundation Radio Network. This is Doug McVay saying, “So long”.

For the Drug Truth Network this is Doug McVay asking you to examine our policy of drug prohibition, the Century of Lies. Drug Truth Network programs are archived at the James A. Baker, III Institute for Public Policy.

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The Drug Truth Network has a Facebook page, please give it a like. Drug War Facts has a Facebook page, too, give it a like. Share it with friends. Remember, knowledge is power. We will be back in a week with 30 more minutes of news and information about drug policy reform and the failed War on Drugs. For the Drug Truth Network, this is Doug McVay saying so long.

TRANSCRIPT

CENTURY OF LIES

OCTOBER 23, 2019

DEAN BECKER: The failure of drug war is glaringly obvious to judges, cops, wardens, prosecutors, and millions more now calling for decriminalization, legalization, the end of prohibition. Let us investigate the Century of Lies.

DOUG MCVAY: Hello, and welcome to Century of Lies. I'm your host Doug McVay, editor of www.DrugPolicyFacts.org.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs held a set of intersessional thematic meetings October 16 through 18 at the UN’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria. For the first time ever, the meetings were webcast via YouTube, through the account of the secretariat of the governing bodies of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Loyal listeners know that I am a longtime critic of the CND and UNODC for their lack of transparency. Webcasting via YouTube was a major advance. Kind of.

The videos are unlisted. They don’t appear in YouTube search results or on google search, they’re not on the Secretariat’s account page. Neither UNODC nor the CND have posted links to them. You have to have the link in order to view the video. So if you go to my Facebook page, which is www.facebook.com/douglasalanmcvay, you will find the links for all three days. As of the time of this recording the videos are still online.

Each day’s video starts with the opening of the morning session and continues until the afternoon session ends, which means they’re each a little over eight hours long including the two hour lunch break in the middle. The International Drug Policy Consortium has a blog with a very good summary of every CND meeting at CNDBlog.org that you can use as a guide to each day’s session in order to find presentations from any particular agency or country in which you may be interested.

On this week’s show we’re going to hear a little of the audio from this recent set of intersessional meetings. First, we’re going to hear about a growing concern: new psychoactive substances and amphetamine type stimulants.

Martin Raithelhuber, PhD, is an Illicit Synthetic Drugs Expert with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Laboratory and Scientific Section. He manages the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analysis, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, which supports countries to generate, analyze, report and use information on illicit synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS). The SMART Programme also runs the UNODC Early Warning Advisory on NPS, a web-based information platform on NPS emergence. Here is Dr. Raithelhuber:

DR. RAITHELHUBER: The topic of my presentation is the ATS market ten years after the 2009 Plan of Action. More synthetic drugs of higher purity and for less money – is that possible? Is it happening? What is going on with the synthetic drug market? Long before the emergence of new psychoactive substances – we heard about them earlier today – new forms of information technology such as the internet contributed to a rapid spread of knowledge on precursors and manufacturing techniques of amphetamine type stimulants and they are more and more globalized in an interconnected world.

Countries which use to measure methamphetamine seizures in kilograms are now measuring them in tons. The capacity of clandestine laboratories for synthetic drugs increased and forensic laboratories in some countries are reporting a purity of methamphetamine that is so high that it can no longer detect the traces in impurities and samples which can be used for profiling for example and our colleague from DMCCDA reported earlier that the MDMA dose in an Ecstasy tablet is higher than ever and doubled in recent years. So synthetic drugs are a game changer they can be manufactured anywhere in the world and they are manufactured practically in the world. Their manufacture is relatively simple and can be done in a small scale and a large scale industrial scale. Traffickers can choose between a wide range of precursors and synthesis roots.

So already in 1998 – so that is 20 years ago – the general assembly realized that synthetic drugs posed specific set of challenges at that time mainly amphetamine type stimulants. They were indeed a game changer in a world long dominated by plant based drugs like cannabis, heroin, and cocaine. Ten years later in 2009, the absence of a global monitoring mechanism for synthetic drugs made it difficult to understand that new situation and the complexity and dynamics of the growing political market for synthetic drugs. As a consequence member (UNINTELLIGIBLE) resolve to take measures to advance the monitoring of illicit synthetic drugs in the framework of the political declaration and Plan of Action of 2009.

A global monitoring mechanism was set up around the same time by UNODC, the UNODC Global Smart Programme which I have the pleasure to manage. The program has since contributed significantly to improve the quantity and quality of information on the illicit synthetic drug market. Several elements of that 2009 Plan of Action were then later included in 2016 in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) document particularly the operation recommended recommendations to improve the detection and identification capacity. Mexico earlier today mentioned the importance of forensic laboratories and early warning systems to detect new and emerging trends.

Now let’s look at the market development ten years ago. In 2008, the quantity of amphetamine type seizures was just at 60 tons. Since then it has increased four times to 2,061 tons in 2017. The seizure amount of all the main amphetamine type stimulants: methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ecstasy have increased – all three, strongly. The expansion is mainly driven as you see in the graph by one drug and that is methamphetamine. Let’s take a closer look at methamphetamine.

Methamphetamine is clearly becoming the primary amphetamine type stimulant of concern. Quantities of that drug have increased more than 7 times. I really took a great effort with the help of the 1980’s pocket calculator to make sure that the size of the circles is approximately displaying a 7-fold increase. Recent data we heard from my colleague in Bangkok and Southeast Asia indicates a further increase of methamphetamine seizures in 2018 and 2019 as well as far as we know. This increase affects the known or the main traditional regions Asia and the Americas, but also other regions like Europe, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and Africa.

Among methamphetamine one particular form of methamphetamine known as “Ice” or “Chrystal Meth”, Crystalline Methamphetamine is particularly increasing and this is the form of methamphetamine which is associated with a particularly high health risk for users.

So are these growing seizure amounts a reflection of more effective law enforcement activities. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) this morning already raised that question. So did all the efforts of countries maybe in collaboration with the many UNODC programs we have today have an effect on the market? Are they working? Are all of these efforts making a larger dent in to the illicit drug market? We hope so and I think so, however, at the same time we notice that the prices for methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs are actually falling. Without doubt growing amounts of methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs are taken off the market by law enforcement. But assuming a stable demand this should lead to price increases or a lower purity as traffickers try to compensate for these losses and charge higher risk premiums. Instead prices for example for methamphetamine pills – so called “Yaba” pills in Southeast Asia are decreasing while the purity remains stable. In Thailand in 2008, Yaba pills were sold for $6-$10 apiece. Now they can be bought for as little as $3 – half the price. In North America prices of Chrystal Meth decreased significantly while the purity at the same time increased – which is counterintuitive actually. A pure gram of Chrystal Meth in the U.S. cost $220 in 2008, you can get the same amounts and purity now for just $70 – one-third. In Europe Ecstasy tablets with a much higher MDMA content as we heard earlier today and users can buy these much stronger tablets for practically the same Euro amount and the price of such a high dose Ecstasy tablet is within pocket money range of a teenager and cheaper than a drink for users.

So there is a dynamic and growing market for synthetic drugs and countries are beginning to feel the impact with increasing demand for treatment for example, and a large number of fatalities associated to the use of synthetic drugs. So there is more and higher purity methamphetamine, amphetamine, and ecstasy available in a large number of countries and for less money than before.

The global mechanism for monitoring synthetic drugs at the Global SMART Programme has been able to reveal and communicate this development. So while information gaps still exist, it is also true that there has never been a more complete and up-to-date information available on the synthetic drug market. So how can member states, how can we here at UNODC, the international community and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) make better use of this information to develop responses and what could such responses look like? We are still at the beginning of this discussion yet there are maybe some lessons learned, particularly from the emergence of NPS (New Psychoactive Substances) when the international took fast and effective action capacity building. Awareness raising and capacity building has improved the availability of information on synthetic drug trends and the ability of law enforcement in many countries to detect and identify drug shipments. So there is no doubt that member states are able to identify many, many more new psychoactive substances for example than just a few years ago and UNODC has played a role here but I really want to highlight the tremendous efforts many member states have undertaken to increase the capacity of their forensic laboratories in law enforcement to be able to detect and identify these substances.

International collaboration has been key for this success – to exchange knowledge, methods, good practices, bilateral/multilateral/lateral cooperation, interagency collaboration between UN agencies led to concrete results such as the UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs. You are going to hear more about it in the coming days. We will hear many more examples of collaboration for example, between UNODC and the World Health Organization, and INBC and other partners.

Early warning systems at the national, regional, international level were a decisive element to make available information on emerging trends early on to take action. In this context I would like to emphasize the critical importance of forensic labs/scientific laboratories. It was mentioned early today and it was already mentioned in the 2009 Action Plan and I know there are persons in the room, colleagues, counterparts from member states who have personally contributed to make available information on new psychoactive substances for example to the UNODC Early Warning Advisory. Information on the chemical nature of these substances, information on their pharmacology, on their toxicity and this information available – is being used by member states. It has informed legislation, for example – generic legislation in a number of countries and just to give you a concrete example because it is a recent example – I think Argentina was one of the most recent countries to introduce generic legislation on a group of new psychoactive substances and a counterpart informed me that the UNODC Early Warning Advisory – our information system – was important and informed the decision and it led them to information available from other member states like the United Kingdom for example, which had already experiences with such generic definitions of new psychoactive substances. So this information exchange is working yet we know from our interaction with many countries that knowledge and the capacity available to formulate responses to synthetic drugs and their precursors particularly at the field level is far from satisfactory. Field identification tools need to be modernized and made available much more widely. Information needs to be collected and shared more quickly and with a wider range of stakeholders including both law enforcement and health actors – state and private sector, and non-governmental organizations.

I would like to highlight one publication, which we issued just yesterday, The Global SMART Update, which has much more detailed information on what I have been presenting here in a very, very condensed form. You can take your copy outside at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Strategy Booth.

Let me conclude by saying that we are looking forward to continuing this discussion with you. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you today. Thank you.

That was Martin Raithelhuber, PhD, he’s an Illicit Synthetic Drugs Expert with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Laboratory and Scientific Section. He manages the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analysis, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, which supports countries to generate, analyze, report and use information on illicit synthetic drugs and new psychoactive substances (NPS).

You’re listening to Century of Lies. I’m your host Doug McVay, editor of DrugWarFacts.org.

Next we’re going to hear from Gilberto Guerra, MD. Doctor Guerra is Chief of the Drug Prevention and Health Branch at the UNODC.

DR. GUERRA: (VERY HEAVY ACCENT, COULD NOT TRANSCRIBE)

That was Doctor Gilberto Guerra, he’s chief of the drug prevention and health branch at the UNODC. He was speaking before the Commission on Narcotic Drugs at their recent set of thematic intersessional meetings in mid-October at the UN’s offices in Vienna, Austria.

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs will hold its 63rd annual session sometime in early March 2020. The dates have not yet been set. CND meets in mid-December of this year for a reconvened 62nd session. More information is available in the CND section of the UNODC website, which is UNODC.org.

And that's it for this week. I want to thank you for joining us. You have been listening to Century of Lies. We're a production of the Drug Truth Network for the Pacifica Foundation Radio Network, on the web at DrugTruth.net. I've been your host Doug McVay, editor of DrugWarFacts.org.

The executive producer of the Drug Truth Network is Dean Becker. Drug Truth Network programs, including this show, Century of Lies, as well as the flagship show of the Drug Truth Network, Cultural Baggage, and of course our daily 420 Drug War News segments, are all available by podcast. The URLs to subscribe are on the network home page at DrugTruth.net.

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We'll be back in a week with thirty more minutes of news and information about drug policy reform and the failed war on drugs. For now, for the Drug Truth Network, this is Doug McVay saying so long. So long!

For the Drug Truth Network, this is Doug McVay asking you to examine our policy of drug prohibition: the century of lies. Drug Truth Network programs archived at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.