Director-General/Executive Director
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to welcome you all to the fourth UNODC Forensic Science Symposium.
I would like to thank the Asian Forensic Science Network, the European Network of Forensic Science Institute, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration for their support in making this platform possible.
This Symposium is truly a global event, bringing together practitioners with a broad range of experiences and expertise from Oceania, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.
Last year, we had a record 1,300 participants from more than 100 countries attend the Symposium, and this year looks set to surpass that level of participation.
This is an important opportunity to come together and explore scientific solutions to some of today’s most pressing challenges on the international drug control agenda.
And it couldn’t be more timely.
The global illicit drug trade is evolving and expanding at breakneck speed with devastating impacts on people and communities.
According to UNODC’s World Drug Report, the number of people who use drugs worldwide rose to 292 million in 2022.
And out of the estimated 64 million people with drug disorders, less than 10 percent are in treatment.
We are seeing highly potent opioids flooding drug markets, with cheap and easy to produce synthetics often evading control and treatment measures.
UNODC’s Early Warning Advisory lists 138 new synthetic opioids linked to a strong increase in overdose deaths.
In the United States alone, drugs caused more than 100,000 deaths in 2023, mostly due to fentanyl, and in Canada, opioid-related deaths have reached around 20,000 annually.
In West and Central Africa, illicit flows of tramadol from South Asia continue to aggravate widespread non-medical use, with the region accounting for 98% of tramadol seizures in 2022.
Meanwhile, methamphetamine flows from Southwest Asia and captagon flows from the Levant are converging in the Near and Middle East, with seizures of captagon increasing by more than 3,000 per cent in four years in Iraq alone, according to our latest research there.
And over the past decade, over 1,200 new psychoactive substances were detected on the illicit drug market.
At the same time, traditional plant-based drugs continue to flood the market. Cocaine production hit a record high in 2022, up 20 percent from the previous year. This surge has fueled violence along supply chain routes, particularly in Ecuador and Caribbean countries.
And the illicit drug trade is growing more entangled with other illegal markets.
In Haiti, armed gangs are driving an unprecedented wave of violence in the country while profiting from drug trafficking.
In the Golden Triangle, drug trafficking goes hand in hand with financial fraud, illegal resource extraction and wildlife trafficking.
In the Amazon Basin, drug trafficking is fueling environmental damage through deforestation and the dumping of toxic waste.
And in the Sahel, drug trafficking is thriving amidst a cauldron of political instability, violence, and conflict, and in some cases the proceeds also fund terrorist groups.
The impact of these challenges is felt hardest by the most vulnerable – youth, the displaced and marginalized, and women and girls.
Only one in eighteen women with drug use disorders receives treatment, with women continuing to face greater consequences for drug use and greater stigma and discrimination.
Young people continue to be targeted through misinformation, unaware of the harm caused by synthetic drugs.
And those who are displaced by conflict or in humanitarian settings all face greater risks, as well as greater obstacles to care.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The complexities of drug-related issues are staggering and can only be addressed with evidence-based policies tailored to the specific needs of each region and environment.
The growth of the synthetic drug market across regions adds a new layer of complexity, as we need to identify key routes and precursor chemicals, along with the threats of clandestine laboratories and strategies to safely dismantle them.
No single country or scientific organization holds all the answers to addressing these challenges.
But scientific exchanges like this one today can help forensic laboratories worldwide build on their knowledge and capabilities to strengthen global responses.
And equipping practitioners with the right tools and capacities is critical.
Through our Synthetic Drug Strategy, UNODC is on the ground supporting Member States in these efforts.
We have provided technical assistance to over 300 laboratories in 120 countries, including on forensic capacities, early warning, information exchange, dismantling drug labs, and safe disposal of substances.
Our UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs continues to be a valuable resource, bringing together 460 resources from across the UN system, with over 228,000 users.
And to further elevate our support, by the end of 2024 we will launch new technical guidelines and an internet-based app to assist with the identification, handling and disposal of hazardous chemicals used in drug production.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Forensic science plays a vital role in identifying emerging drug threats and enabling a timely response to drug trafficking trends and patterns.
There is still a wide gap in technical and scientific capacities between the Global North and Global South, which we must work to close, and international cooperation is key to protect the world from the scourge of drugs.
UNODC continues to stand as a committed partner in promoting the use of science to build bridges and confront today’s drug-related challenges.
Thank you, and I wish you all a productive session.
