The production of drugs is not the monopoly of regions outside the European Union (EU) or the United States of America (USA). Designer drugs, specialized in “designing” their way out of legislation and tight controls, are being produced on a large scale and at an ever-faster pace in the EU and USA.
Due to their high demand in the EU and USA, the production of synthetic drugs, in particular amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) like methamphetamine and ecstasy, has become one of the most difficult problems for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
In the EU and USA there are two popular categories of narcotics: Amphetamine-type stimulants, namely a group of substances including predominantly amphetamine, methamphetamine and ecstasy and a group of substances including MDMA (and its analogues) as well as substances containing or thought to contain MDMA. Both categories can be found in powder, tablets or crystals and due to the fact that they are made from chemicals that are not under supervision, they are really difficult to tackle.
Although in recent years there has been a decrease in the number of clandestine drug laboratories in the EU, there is a significant increase in the USA as a result of the rising popularity of methamphetamine and ecstasy among young people and drug abusers.
“While the number of ecstasy laboratories in Europe has declined significantly over the past decade, the number of amphetamine laboratories in Europe is not so low. In 2008, (the latest year for which data is available), 45 laboratory incidents were reported from Member States. Europe is a major market for amphetamine whereas Asia and the United States are important markets for methamphetamine”, said Beatte Hammond, expert and manager of the Global SMART Programme of the Laboratory and Scientific Section of the UNODC.
Besides this, a shift has occurred from complex production procedures for drugs to simpler and smaller “kitchen type” methods, involving the alternative use of household chemicals like Ketamine, usually used for veterinary purposes, making concrete detection difficult and causing injuries not only to the drugs makers, but also among drug users, due to their unknown side effects after consumption.
Compared to other drugs, the synthetic drugs market is a lucrative business because production does not depend on raw plant material and is mobile, there are a variety of starting materials and manufacturing processes and trafficking routes can change rapidly. In addition to the limited forensic capacity, monitoring and strategically responding to the plague of synthetic drugs is particularly challenging for the authorities.
Authorities are having a hard time keeping up with all the new precursors. For example, one of the most popular drugs, mephedrone, also known as Meow Meow, first appeared in 2007 with no known medical use. It waslegally sold online, causing 40 deaths in Europe and it was not untilDecember 2010 that U.K., Sweden and Germany decided to ban it. After mephedrone was banned, some websites that had been selling it began advertising NRG-1, or naphyrone, instead, leading the U.K. to become the first EU member state to ban it. Seizures of tablets with different logo imprints suggest involvement of organized crime in the distribution of mephedrone. In the USA, a drug with the catchy name “spice”, a new kind of smokable synthetic cannabinoid is increasingly popular, and some states have banned it, whereas it also became popular in Europe in 2008 and was subsequently banned. Only last year, 24 new “psychoactive substances” were identified in Europe, almost double the number reported in 2008, according to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
“The drug control Conventions are most effective if their provisions are fully applied. Improving the understanding of the phenomenon of the illicit manufacture, trafficking and abuse of synthetic drugs is the first step which will enable Governments to find ways to address the problem effectively,” as Beatte Hammond states, underlining about the role of the UN in seizures of drug concoctions. The Global SMART Programme exists to support Member States to better understand and tackle the synthetic drug problem.
BOX: In 2008, there were only four laboratories exposed by Europol in Belgium, Netherlands and Spain, whereas more than 20 laboratories were traced in the USA.
