Vienna (Austria), 15 April 2021 — The UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs supports the international community to implement comprehensive responses to counter the synthetic drugs problem, and now its varied tools and resources on synthetic drugs compiled from a broad range of UN agencies are available to Spanish-speaking users.
“Opioid use disorder deaths are up by 71 per cent over the past 10 years, and methamphetamine seizures are at a record high,” informed UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly. “To help countries protect health and take action, the UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs developed by UNODC provides practical resources on legislation, forensics, health policy and more.”
The Toolkit is a one-stop shop coordinated by the UNODC Opioid Strategy which brings together a wide range of guidance from a variety of specialised agencies across the UN system. Its valuable cross-cutting tools and resources are now rendered more accessible to Spanish-speaking users and cover areas such as forensics, treatment and care, precursors, legal responses, access to medicine and prevention of diversion, early warning systems and postal security.
Tailored to the needs of experts, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of health, law enforcement, forensics, and research, the new Spanish language version, which was launched in the margins of the 64th Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), will further extend the Toolkit’s reach by providing experts in Spanish-speaking countries with the tools they need to tackle the threats posed by synthetic drugs.
The Toolkit was created in response to Resolutions 61/8 (2018) and 62/4 (2019) of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs which called on UNODC, WHO, INCB and the international community to develop new and innovative approaches to address the international threats posed by the non-medical use of synthetic drugs.
The UN Toolkit on Synthetic Drugs has been developed with the support of the United States of America Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Its availability in Spanish was facilitated through collaboration with the Organization of American States Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission.
