HANOI, Viet Nam – September 2017: Key trends on New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) and emerging information on synthetic drugs were discussed on 29th-30th August at the 9th Regional SMART Workshop for East and South-East Asia in Viet Nam. In recent years, more NPS have been identified by a growing number of countries in East and South-East Asia. Moreover, methamphetamine seizures show an upward trend in the region. Another troubling aspect is that synthetic drug tablets have been found to contain a diverse range of substances. This potentially exposes users of synthetic drugs to additional serious health risks because they are often unaware of the content and the dosage of the psychoactive substances contained in such tablets.

For more information, please see:

UNODC press release on “Synthetic drugs from Asia are fuelling global public health and crime concerns”
http://www.unodc.org/southeastasiaandpacific/en/vietnam/2017/08/smart-regional-workshop/story.html

UNODC report on “The Challenge of Synthetic Drugs in East and South-East Asia”
http://www.apaic.org/images/SMART-PDF/2017_The_Challenge_of_Synthetic_Drugs_in_East_and_SEA.pdf

UNODC “World Drug Report 2017”
http://www.unodc.org/wdr2017/field/Booklet_4_ATSNPS.pdf