Two tablets of methamphetamine: That’s all it would take for Thai authorities to charge and imprison someone as a drug dealer under new proposed regulations recently announced by the country’s Ministry of Public Health.

Anutin Charnvirakul, Thailand’s Minister of Public Health and deputy prime minister, told an addiction treatment and rehabilitation committee last week that he would toughen drug laws so that anyone found in possession of more than one meth pill—known locally as “yaba”—would be viewed as a dealer rather than a user, and therefore subject to harsh penalties including imprisonment.

Current laws state that those found with 15 or fewer pills in their possession are regarded as having them for personal use, rather than intent to sell, and are therefore subject to rehabilitation rather than severe convictions. But Anutin believes dealers are exploiting this as a loophole—one he wants to close.

Just 2 meth pills could soon be enough to classify drug users as dealers in Thailand

8th December, 13.30 to 15.30 CET at the Vienna International Centre and online

Interpretation in French, Russian and Spanish will be available

The UNODC Synthetic Drug Strategy 2021-2025 was formally launched in November 2021, centered around four “spheres of action” (multilateralism and international cooperation, early warning on emerging synthetic drug threats, science-informed health responses, and counter-narcotic interventions).

To enhance and sustain meaningful civil society engagement in the context of the UNODC Synthetic Drug Strategy, UNODC together with The Alliance and the Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) are organizing an initial 

consultation with relevant civil society stakeholders on 8th December 2022

, in the margins of the reconvened meeting of the 65th CND. The meeting will serve as an initial “kick-off” to develop substantiative civil society expert groups that can play a consultative role in the implementation, adaptation and evaluation of the Synthetic Drug Strategy.

The consultation will be held in a hybrid format (online and in person) on

 8th December, 1.30PM (CET) to 3.30PM (CET). Civil society representatives interested in contributing are invited to participate.


Interpretation in FR, RU and ES will be provided.

Interested civil society representatives are invited to 

Note: Kindly note that no funding will be provided for travel costs. Interested participants wishing to attend in-person are expected to cover all associated costs.

Engaging with the UNODC Synthetic Drug Strategy - Civil society consultation

By the NZ Drug Foundation and the Helen Clark Foundation

Harmful methamphetamine use has become a serious and intractable health issue in Aotearoa New Zealand over the past 20 years, and it is the country’s most feared and stigmatised substance. While Aotearoa New Zealand has turned increasingly towards a health-based approach to drug use over the past several years, no comprehensive analysis has been undertaken about what that might look like in the context of methamphetamine use.

This paper begins by providing an overview of how methamphetamine is used, by whom and why, how big the market is, what the harms are that it causes, and how it is currently regulated. We then recommend how we can reduce those harms by better implementing what the evidence tells us about how to lower demand and support people better using a mix of psychosocial, cultural, and pharmacological approaches.

While only around 1.2% of New Zealanders use methamphetamine each year, according to the New Zealand Health Survey, the relatively low overall number of users hides the significant health, social, and economic impacts of dependent use. While methamphetamine is used in every community in Aotearoa New Zealand, the negative impacts are particularly severe in communities with high pre-existing levels of deprivation and where prevalence of use is significantly higher than the population average. Wastewater testing shows highest per capita methamphetamine use in rural towns in Northland, Bay of Plenty, and Hawkes Bay.

Māori use methamphetamine at a higher rate than non-Māori, and are criminalised for its use at a disproportionately higher rate. The flow-on impacts of colonisation and ongoing systemic racism lead to Māori being more likely to suffer from mental health and addiction issues, and generally from poorer health overall. That means that methamphetamine use takes a higher toll on Māori, who also face greater barriers to accessing appropriate healthcare. In addition, Māori face cultural impacts from high methamphetamine use that are not experienced by other groups. Community leaders have highlighted the negative impacts from high rates of methamphetamine use as one of the most significant issues facing Māori communities.

Methamphetamine is a strong and addictive stimulant. While the majority of people may use it occasionally over a long period without serious health effects, others can rapidly become dependent and find it extremely difficult to stop using it.

The social and economic impacts of methamphetamine in Aotearoa New Zealand are significant. Large profit margins have led to the development of highly sophisticated distribution networks. In some parts of the country, these networks market methamphetamine aggressively, using many of the same tactics as the alcohol industry, such as freebies, discounts, and targeted advertising. These networks aim to introduce new users to methamphetamine, and to increase use among those who already use.

Anecdotally, methamphetamine has in many places replaced, or partly replaced, cannabis as a key source of income for some gangs and other organised crime groups.

It is clear from local and international evidence that attempting to reduce harmful drug use by focusing on reducing supply alone does not work – where there is demand for a drug, someone will always step in to sell it for a profit. Arresting a dealer or intercepting a large amount at the border may dent supply temporarily, but never for long. It is also clear that aggressively marketing a drug can help to increase demand (alcohol is a good example of this phenomenon).

Historically, our approach to reducing harm from methamphetamine use in Aotearoa New Zealand has primarily been to focus on the supply side: coming down hard on dealers, and attempting to stamp out international trafficking and local manufacture. At the same time, we have punished people who use the drug and provided too little, if any, treatment and other support options. Support is often only available to those who are already severely dependent, or who enter the criminal justice system.

The public discourse is now starting to acknowledge that controlling use through enforcement alone has been largely unsuccessful and that drug use should be treated as a health and social issue. Prosecuting individuals for their use is neither effective, nor compassionate. A programme in Northland – Te Ara Oranga – has successfully piloted an approach where police, health staff, iwi, and local NGOs work together to address social issues, and help people access help, rather than prosecuting people for their use.

To get on top of problematic methamphetamine use in Aotearoa New Zealand we need to increase the focus on innovative, and proven, ways to reduce demand. We also need to help people who experience methamphetamine addiction to extricate themselves from a toxic illicit market. People who are addicted often become trapped by debt and turn to dealing or other crime to support their own use.

First, we propose a comprehensive approach to prevention, harm reduction, early intervention, and accessibility of treatment services. In this paper we examine some of the different interventions that could achieve that – such as rolling out the Te Ara Oranga approach nationally.

Second, we propose a pilot to test whether a stimulant substitution treatment model tailored to the Aotearoa New Zealand context could help individuals move away from the harmful impacts of contact and involvement with the illicit methamphetamine market, thus making it easier for them to access support and treatment, and get their lives back on track.

In our proposed pilot, a substitute stimulant – or where this is ineffective, methamphetamine itself – would be provided in tightly controlled circumstances to people who have become addicted and have struggled to achieve abstinence, despite having been through two rounds of treatment. Methamphetamine addiction treatment is often successful at helping people reduce their use but does not always help them achieve full abstinence, or maintain abstinence in the long term. This proposal could help both those who have found treatment to be unsuccessful and those who have found it to be partly successful. Prescribed stimulant substitution could help both groups to avoid interaction with the illicit market and the risks that entails.

Our proposal is modelled on highly effective and well-evidenced experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand with opioid substitution treatment, with heroin-assisted treatment in Switzerland and other places, as well as recent experiences in Canada, where drugs such as amphetamines and opioids have been provided on prescription to dependent users.

Much of this paper relies on international literature and data because there is relatively little data in Aotearoa New Zealand on this topic. There is obviously a need for caution in assuming international data will apply in Aotearoa New Zealand in the same way. We have preferentially sought out Australian literature where nothing is available from Aotearoa New Zealand because of the broad cultural similarities between the two countries.

Minimising the harms from methamphetamine

The New South Wales attorney general, Mark Speakman, has revealed his frustration at his own government’s failure to respond to a landmark report on ice addiction, saying he has spent “hundreds of hours” trying to secure cabinet support for the reforms.

It has been 30 months since Prof Dan Howard handed down the findings of the special commission into ice, commissioned by former premier Gladys Berejiklian prior to the state election in 2019.

Appearing before a budget estimates hearing on Monday, Speakman said he was “disappointed” by the government’s failure to respond, saying Howard’s inquiry was “founded on extensive research and evidence”.

The inquiry, which ran for 14 months, criticised the criminalisation of drug users as a “profound flaw” in the justice system, recommending the complete decriminalisation of drug possession in the state.

Australia: NSW attorney general ‘disappointed’ by own government’s lack of action over ice report

For campaigners advocating drug liberalisation, it is an image that is almost too good to be true: a store down a cobbled street in Utrecht legally selling ecstasy, or MDMA, for recreational use, apparently as easily as the jeweller is selling watches next door.

The XTC shop in the centre of the Netherlands’ fourth-largest city has even been visited in recent days by a government minister, who was pictured examining its bubblegum-style vending machines and in-house educational videos.

Unfortunately for drug reformers, however, the “shop” is not – yet – the result of the extension of the famous Dutch gedoogbeleid (tolerance policy) on cannabis use and sale.

The health minister, Ernst Kuipers, was instead visiting a mock-up of how an ecstasy retailer might look from the outside – with three models inside of how the drug might be sold in practice depending on the level of state regulation.

In response to the deepening environmental and societal damage being reaped by the illicit trade and use of drugs in the Netherlands, Kuipers’ D66 party, one of four in the governing coalition, is in favour of examining the regulation of currently prohibited drugs such as cocaine, MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms and LSD.

High street? Dutch ecstasy ‘shop’ shows possible way for drug reform

'EU Drug Markets: In-depth analysis' is a strategic and action-oriented analysis of the information available on Europe's illicit drug markets. It takes a broad view of these markets from production and trafficking, to distribution and use. It provides a holistic and systemic perspective, capturing key aspects of the wider security and public health consequences of drug markets, as well as the main factors driving change and new threats.

The analysis takes a modular format and each module focuses on the market for a particular drug — thus providing a unique set of essential resources for law enforcement professionals, policymakers, the academic community and indeed for anyone seeking up-to-date information and analysis on drug markets in Europe.

EU Drug Markets: In-depth analysis

By Susannah George, Joby Warrick - The Washington Post

Afghanistan’s fastest-growing drug industry operates from desert outposts in plain view.

One of its most bustling hubs, some five hours west of Kandahar, can only be reached by miles of dirt tracks that lead to a row of dusty shops topped with Taliban flags. Wholesalers like Abdulwadood work openly here, moving dozens of kilos of methamphetamine every week.

In the middle of his crowded shop, he casually tosses a half-kilo bag of long glassy shards onto the carpet. Its street value in Europe is tens of thousands of dollars. Abdulwadood will sell it for about $250.

“Every year, sales and production just increase and increase,” he said, speaking on the condition that only his first name be used to discuss the illicit drug industry. Behind him the rest of his stock was piled in a corner. He expected to sell the roughly 20 kilos of shisha — the Afghan term for meth — in just a few days.

For decades, the country has been a global hub for opium production, estimated to supply 80 percent of the world’s opiate users. Now its meth industry is growing at breakneck speed, stoking fears among Western experts and officials that, under the Taliban, Afghanistan could become a major supplier as demand rises globally.

The drug trade now flourishing in Afghanistan: Meth

Health and social responses to drug problems: a European guide 2021

 was developed to support practitioners and policymakers in tackling the negative consequences of drug use. The guide is composed of four sets of 

that look at responses to a range of drug problems in Europe. Framing the miniguides are two central resources: an 

 for developing responses and a set of 

 frame issues cross-cutting the different components.

Action framework and strategies for successful implementation

These two resources provide support to those planning health and social policy or interventions to address drug problems. The 

 helps to clarify current thinking about the response process and the factors to consider at each stage, while the 

(to be published in 2022) detail a number of activities that may help to support successful implementation.

Action framework: health and social responses

Strategies for successful implementation (coming soon)

Miniguides considering problems from the perspective of particular patterns of drug use and the specific substances that are of concern in many EU countries will be published starting on 19 October 2021.

Drug-related harms require specific responses. Miniguides focusing on them will be published at the end of 2021.

An important factor that can influence drug use, the problems that may be associated with use and the selection of appropriate responses is the setting in which use occurs. Miniguides focusing on different settings will be published in 2022.

Some sub-groups of the population have particular drug problems, needs or vulnerabilities that require specific interventions. Miniguides addressing the needs of vulnerable groups will be published in 2022.

In addition to the miniguides, a series of short ‘Spotlights’ focus on a number of hot topics requiring special attention:

Addressing sexual health issues associated with drug use

Comorbid substance use and mental health problems

Health and social responses to drug problems during the Covid-19 pandemic

Health and social responses to drug problems: a European guide

A special event of the sixty-fourth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, will be held on Friday, 19 November 2021, from 12 noon to 1 p.m., Vienna Time (CEST) online and at the Vienna International Centre. During this event, the UNODC Synthetic Drug Strategy 

The webcast of the special event will be available HERE.

Launch of the UNODC Synthetic Drug Strategy 2021-2025 - CND Special Event

This resource is intended for people who use new psychoactive substances (NPS) and the organizations that help them. It contains useful information on the prevention of HIV infection and other drug-related diseases, on various substances, including synthetic psychostimulants, examples of responses to the challenges of NPS.

Useful information for people who use stimulant drugs - Videos

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated restrictions on mobility of trade and transport, the methamphetamine market in East and Southeast Asia has continued to expand. While Shan State, Myanmar, remains the main source of illicit manufacture of methamphetamine in the region, there are growing signs that Cambodia is being increasingly targeted for large- scale illicit methamphetamine manufacture, showing organized crime diversifying their methamphetamine supply channels.

As for the past decade, the total amount of methamphetamine seized in East and Southeast Asia has continued to increase, reaching another record level in 2020 with preliminary data showing at least 169 tons of methamphetamine seized. Though there was a decline in seizures in East Asia, it was more than offset by the increase in seizures in Southeast Asia, largely due to the lower Mekong countries,1 which accounted for 71 per cent of the total amount of methamphetamine seized in East and Southeast Asia.

Several trafficking routes have emerged, and seizures of methamphetamine point to diversified sources of the substance. Lao PDR has been increasingly targeted for transit and trafficking of methamphetamine and its related chemicals, as indicated by sharp increases in seizures of the drug along the border between Lao PDR and northeastern Thailand. Sources of methamphetamine have diversified beyond Shan State, Myanmar, with reports of methamphetamine being trafficked to the region from West Asia and South Africa.

COVID-19 and its associated mobility restrictions resulted in only a short-lived disruption to the supply of and demand for methamphetamine. Available quarterly data from both East and Southeast Asia show a drop in seizures in the second quarter of 2020 during the height of the pandemic. However, seizures quickly rebounded from the third quarter onwards, demonstrating the flexibility of organized crime groups to adapt to change and take advantage of porous borders in the region. Wholesale prices of crystalline methamphetamine declined in several countries in Southeast Asia, namely Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while its purity remained stable, indicating limited impact on the availability of methamphetamine.

Synthetic Drugs in East and Southeast Asia: Latest developments and challenges 2021

To shed light on sexualized drug use among men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women (TGW) and to understand the socio-sexual context of this practice in Asia and the Pacific, APCOM commissioned a scoping review of locally informed qualitative research under the technical guidance of Drs Angela Kelly-Hanku and Jamee Newland of the University of New South Wales (Australia) and financial support of the UNAIDS Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. The objective of APCOM’s scoping review, titled “A qualitative scoping review of sexualised drug use (including Chemsex) of men who have sex with men and transgender women in Asia”, was to inform effective HIV, harm reduction and programmatic responses in the region, and to guide future qualitative research in the Asia and the Pacific.

SDU is not a new phenomenon and in Asia is receiving attention as the practice is further documented and explored, with SDU prevalence ranging between 3.6% to 91.2% in the region. MSM and TGW typically aged between 18 and 29 years participated in SDU where two distinct settings in the Asia region are social and sex work settings. “This review provides a groundbreaking analysis that helps us understand the social settings in which the practice takes place and the resulting and subsequent risk to HIV,” says Midnight, APCOM Director.

Diverse social and sexual motivations for SDU are reported in the review, ranging from describing SDU as a social and sexual lubricant that increased pleasure, to beauty, status and freedom to participate in sexual fantasies. In different contexts, SDU is used to build individual and community identities and establish relationships or as a coping mechanism for those who had experienced stigma, rejection, and/or who described feelings of lost social and sexual worth. Common across SDU settings reported in this review are themes of privacy, anonymity and secrecy, a finding hardly surprising in an environment where death penalties, incarceration and enforced treatment occurs with respect to drug supply, and peer and family exclusion due to sexuality and criminalisation of same sex relationships.