WASHINGTON DC, United States – April 2020: The Inter-American Observatory on Drugs (OID) of the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD/OAS), which implements the Regional Early Warning System for the Americas, known by its Spanish acronym SATA (Sistema de Alerta Temprana de las Américas), released its first Information Bulletin: Data from the Early Warning System for the Americas, Vol. 1, April 2020. Most of the alerts reported to the SATA in period 2018 to 2019 by national early warning systems from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean concern synthetic drugs including high dose “ecstasy” tablets and highly potent NPS with hallucinogenic effects sold as “LSD”. 

In the framework of the Cooperation Programme between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union on Drugs Policies (COPOLAD II), an Implementation Manual – Early Warning Systems on New Psychoactive Substances and Emerging Drug Phenomena was released providing fundamentals and a basis for the implementation of early warning systems as a critical tool that complements and adds value to the existing information within National Drug Observatories (in English and Spanish).

UNODC builds capacity in countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in the area of synthetic drug and NPS identification and forensic early warning systems in the framework of its Global SMART Programme with support from the United States and Canada and in close collaboration with OAS/CICAD. 

For further information, please see:

CICAD/OID, Information Bulletin: Data from the Early Warning System for the Americas, Vol. No. 1 April 2020

To download COPOLAD, Early Warning System on NPS and Emerging Drug Phenomena. Implementation Manual, please click here.

Global SMART Newsletter for Latin America and the Caribbean, Issue No. 5, October 2019: “'Cocaina rosada' ('pink cocaine') in the spotlight”

Global SMART Newsletter for Latin America and the Caribbean, Issue No. 4, June 2019: “Emergence of synthetic opioids in the region: Increasing rate of fentanyl seizures reported in Mexico in 2019”

Global SMART Newsletter for Latin America and the Caribbean, Issue No. 3, March 2019: “Emergence of New Psychoactive Substances in Latin America and the Caribbean”

SMART Announcement, August 2018 - Uruguay: Early Warning Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean address health risks of drug use

SMART Announcement, April 2018 – UNODC: first training on handheld electronic field testing devices for drug identification in Central America and the Caribbean