Countries beset by ecstasy to gather data on synthetic drugs trade with UN help

With synthetic drugs such as the party favourite ecstasy on a steep rise, and often “cut,” or mixed, with unknown substances to frequently fatal effect, countries vulnerable to the trend will be aided by a new monitoring programme from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

UNODC has launched the Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, which aims to reduce the world's information deficit about amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) and other synthetic drugs that are increasingly mixed together in ever more exotic and dangerous cocktails.

It will help countries, particularly in East and South-east Asian countries that lack the ability to test drugs to obtain data, improve their capacity to gather, analyse and share information on ATS products, their use and trafficking routes, the agency said.

Synthetic drugs are mixed to increase the profit and supply of its purveyors, according to Jeremy Douglas, a UNODC expert. “In East Asia,” Douglas explains, “ecstasy is harder to find than in Europe and drug traffickers have to import it. Traffickers and dealers can command a higher price by passing mixtures off as ecstasy and they basically double their profit.

“People have died as a result,” Douglas adds. “All over the world there have been reports of overdoses or bad reactions.”