Mr Carl Hallergard, EU Ambassador to the International Organisations in Vienna. Welcome to this side event. Today, we wanted to present to you the pledges for action we all made last year. The EUDA has said it: drugs are everywhere, there’s everything, and it affects everyone. Gangs are recruiting young people in their business. The EUDA started its new mandate in July last year, replacing the EMCDDA. The transformation marked a pivotal step in addressing EU security threats and challenges. The EUDA has a mandate to alert MS of new threats and challenges. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the EU’s preparedness on drugs.

Ms. Ghada Waly, UNODC Executive Director. I congratulate the EUDA for its establishment. The shift is driven by synthetic drugs. They can be manufactured quickly, at low cost and anywhere. They are trafficked in large quantities, they are harder to identify, interrupt and seize. The traffic is deeply intertwined with conflict. With large stockpiles identified in Syria, we need an urgent action. Amphetamines from Asia are coming onto the European market. Meanwhile, technology is rapidly transforming. The dark web is a propitious market, with the help of cryptocurrencies. Advertisement of drugs online targets young people. Traffickers are capitalising on these changes. We must adapt our responses, with preparedness as our first line of defence. We have already identified 1200 NPS. We are identifying emerging drug patterns. We assisted over 300 drug testing labs, are assisting forensics labs. Through our drug strategy, we are identifying evidence on dismantling clandestine drug labs. AI plays an important role. We need to work closely with the private sector and online platforms. We must strengthen resilience and our alliances. Our partnership with the EUDA enables us to strengthen collaboration with the EU and beyond. We can create a stronger, more unified drug response and stronger action on the ground. UNODC stands ready to work with all of you to strengthen international cooperation and reinforce global security.

Mr. Alexis Goosdeel, EUDA. I present here today the new EUDA. My presentation is about preparedness. One of the reasons for the EMCDDA was the fact that we saw a huge increase in availability of drugs: drugs are everywhere, everything can be the object of addictive behaviour, and it can affect everyone. We must respond effectively to these new hazards and challenges. When we try to explain what we mean about ‘preparedness’, we mean a state of readiness: mindful of having all the responses and systems ready. It’s not about preparing for a war, it’s about being more proactive. There is a long-term trend in data collection that is standardised and comparable. This is part of the uniqueness of our system. We have regular reporting in all countries we develop together. We also have an alert system, which we didn’t start from scratch. It relies on the early warning system. We will expand the role of our warning system via our communications network. This is all aiming at ensuring that the EU and its MS to be ready in their responses. We can then use all this information to assess what we can learn. We have a stronger mission to help MS to evaluate and design new policies, and invest with supporting capacity development via training platforms. We identified 12 packages of services. The problem we share with UNODC, EU, WHO, OAS, etc. is not a lack of awareness, it’s lack of political will to focus on evidence and science. For an overview of the 12 strategic packages, these are all available on the website. There are 5 scientific/thematic clusters, and we have a new data collection system that will feed into the thematic clusters. We will engage with partners for change. Vigilance is of the essence. Our alerts will be your science for quick and decisive actions. Our recommendations will help boost the impact of your work. Acting today, anticipating tomorrow. This is my 22nd CND as a representative of the EMCDDA/EUDA, and the 40th year since I started my clinical practice. So I want to share 2-3 ideas on what it has meant for me to represent the agency here. The first year as ED of the EMCDDA, I had the pleasure to be part of the EU team at the UNGASS in NY and I will never forget that we felt the same feeling: we were so proud to be part of the EU statement there, which gathered support from so many countries, in relation to the death penalty and first reference to harm reduction. This statement was about insisting on human rights, abolition of the death penalty and protection of health. In recent years at EU, there is a new threat to drug policy: drug-related violence. There is a polarisation of the discourse, and the COVID pandemic has amplified this. But we have more fragmented policies. There is only a focus on the individuals, on punishment, rather than on communities. If we want to ensure better preparedness, we need to maintain the debate with the UN community and relay evidence, update our work on demand reduction given the number of substances, poly-substance use, etc. We talk too much about OAT and not enough the treatment of cocaine dependence. We need to openly focus on Support. Don’t Punish, and even before the campaign was launched, there were mentions of this message. We need solidarity.

Mr. Justice Tettey, UNODC. UNODC supports countries through comprehensive action. Our drug strategy revolves around 4 actions: multilateralism, early warning, counternarcotic interventions, and health responses. We have a strong multilateral system. We ensure systemwide coherence for synthetic drugs through active consultations via the CND, WHO, INCB, regional organisations like the EUDA, academia and the scientific community. We actively support international action against NPS. The evidence is very clear: science-informed policies make a huge difference. But we must continue to follow the science if we want the gains to be sustainable. Across the world, significant progress was made via our early warning systems. As UNODC, we have supported over 300 testing labs. It enables us to save lives, protect health, prevent the next crisis. UNODC created an online platform on the profiling of drugs. This will support better control of precursors. Let’s now look at science-informed health responses. Focusing on children, 25% of the world population are children. They need to gorw into healthy adults. Last year we launched CHAMPS. Today I’m proud to inform you that Brazil, Nigeria, Ecuador, Uzbekistan that are now formally part of CHAMPS. The 2024 WDR and European Drug Report show the huge rise in stimulants.  We are leveraging cooperation and technology, to inform law enforcement and ensure the safe disposal of precursors.

Mr. Alexander Caudarella, Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.