Bernama file photo showing drugs seized in Balik Pulau, Penang earlier this week.
BANGKOK: The emergence of new and more potent synthetic drugs in Southeast Asia has made efforts by regional countries to combat the growing menace a lot harder and complex, according to a United Nations’ expert on synthetic drugs..
This new type of synthetic drugs, also referred as “psychoactive substances”, contain highly toxic substances which are difficult to detect, dangerous and been blamed by experts for contributing to an epidemic of overdose deaths.
A number of new psychoactive substances have already found their way into the ‘Ecstasy’ market in East and Southeast Asia where fakes are sold in pill form under a range of different street names.
“There is high risk of these substances gaining a stronger foothold in the region. Limited forensic capacity to detect and identify these new drugs, coupled with limited knowledge about health risks mean that they remain undetected for a considerable length of time,” said Martin Raithelhuber in a briefing here recently.
Although abuse of new psychoactive substances is still limited compared to methamphetamine, the region is frequently mentioned as the origin of shipments trafficked to other regions, said the expert, who is attached with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
According to the UN agency, potent synthetic drugs manufactured in East and Southeast Asia including Fentanyl and new analogues are impacting drug users in different parts of the world including North America.
The world body said these highly toxic substances, some of which are present in small doses of pain medication, could be manufactured in clandestine laboratories in Southeast Asia and shipped by mail to North America.
Upon arriving in North America, it would be sold in the heroin market or as counterfeit painkiller pills.
UNODC Regional Office information analyst Inshik Sim said the emergence of new psychoactive substances had created a more complex drug situation for national authorities to manage.
“Current methods of drug detection and identification are useful for drugs such as methamphetamine and although more methamphetamine are actually seized by law enforcement authorities, they don’t necessarily work for new psychoactive substances,” he said.
The UNODC regional office here has identified 168 psychoactive substances to date and in response to the growing problem, has established an Early Warning Advisory on New Psychoactive Substances to track new drug trends and inform national authorities.
Its representative Jeremy Douglas who was also present during the briefing, said the world body had placed 27 substances under international control, including 10 substances in March this year.
The move he said, had allowed the countries to prevent the export and import of these drugs and collaborate to prevent trafficking.
However, he said, many countries in the region were still not in a position to detect and identify newly listed drugs and might not be ready to implement related controls.
“There is a risk that organised crime and traffickers will exploit vulnerabilities and loopholes created by uneven national technical capabilities and legal landscapes,” he said, adding that a coordinated approach to the emergence of new drugs would go a long way in addressing the challenge while it is still manageable. – Bernama