VIENNA, Austria – July 2020: Under the conditions of a globalised drug market, there is an increasing risk that new and potentially harmful psychoactive substances may spread to more countries and regions. Early warning systems help to identify the emergence of such new drug threats and changes on the drug market. Drug analysis laboratories are key to a functioning EWS due to the specific expertise, information and data they can generate. On 2nd June 2020, the UNODC SMART Programme launched its first manual on “The role of drug analysis laboratories in Early Warning Systems”, providing drug analysis laboratories worldwide with practical information and examples on how to participate in early warning systems.

The importance of early warning was also recognized by the United Nations General Assembly, which stated that “Governments have recognized the importance of reinforcing national and international efforts and increasing global cooperation to respond to the challenges and threats of emerging drugs (…) by strengthening information exchange through early warning systems.” UNODC developed a global early warning system on NPS under the umbrella of its Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trends (SMART) Programme, the UNODC Early Warning Advisory (EWA) on NPS. UNODC strongly encourages national laboratories to actively use this system, which delivers an important input to the review of substances by the World Health Organization in the context of the international drug control conventions, and enhances the analytical work of drug analysis laboratories worldwide.



For more information, please see:

The role of drug analysis laboratories in Early Warning Systems. English, Spanish.

Outcome Document of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem entitled ‘Our joint commitment to effectively addressing and countering the world drug problem’.