UNODC Launches French Version of the UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs: a framework for action to address this global problem.
Vienna (Austria), 20 December 2021 — The manufacture of synthetic drugs is on the rise, as are the harms associated with their use. The UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs, an innovative online platform covering a wide range of cross-cutting thematic areas related to this drugs, helps countries respond to this challenge. It has been accessed by 14,000 users in 185 countries and territories to date and its reach is now being expanded through the availability of a French language version.
Developed under the UNODC Opioid Strategy and supporting the implementation of the Synthetic Drug Strategy, the UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs brings together over 300 multidisciplinary resources from across the UN system covering topics such as forensics, treatment and care, precursors, legal responses, access to medicine and prevention of diversion, early warning systems, postal security and cybercrime.
Recognizing the UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs as an essential resource for responding to the global synthetic drug problem, and in particular the opioid crisis, the newly launched French language version of the Toolkit was made possible through financial support from the Government of Canada’s Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program (ACCBP). It will provide French-speaking experts, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of health, law enforcement, forensics, and research with valuable tools to tackle the threats posed by synthetic drugs.
Some figures on this type of drug
An estimated 27 million people used amphetamine stimulants in 2019, corresponding to 1 in 200 of the global population.
More than 95% of Amphetamine Type Stimulant laboratories uncovered between 2015 and 2019 were used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Methamphetamine prices in North America and South East Asia have collapsed making a highly addictive drug more affordable and accessible to a wider range of people, and as they are often less expensive than an alcoholic drink in a nightclub, increases their appeal to young people with reduced financial resources.
And 20 million people globally have used ecstasy in the past year. Ecstasy pills sold today often contain more than double the amount of the active substance MDMA compared to 2011 but cost about the same. What might sound like a good deal for users can potentially lead to a life-threatening overdose.
The number of known psychoactive substances has increased 6-fold since 2009 and reached 1,047 unique substances in 2020. On average traffickers have introduced 80 new substances to the illicit drug market each year in the last decade. Therefore treatment and emergency response services face an increasingly challenging task to help users who do not know which substances the have actually consumed
Women and drugs
Women seem to be particularly affected bay the non-medical use of sedatives and tranquilizers, with past-year prevalence in some countries reported as being higher among women than among men, or at least at comparable levels
