GMS nations spur anti-drug cooperation

On May 21, the Ministerial Meeting of the Signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Drug Control opened in Hanoi, attended by six member countries- Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam along with the  UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The 1993 MoU is designed to deal with the illegal production, storage, transportation, trafficking and use of drugs.

In his speech, Public Security Minister Tran Dai Quang highlighted the important results after two decades of anti-drug cooperation among GMS nations thereby helping ensure security and order, boost socio- economic development, reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of the member states.

With the UNODC support, the cooperation mechanism has been proven to be an effective model for preventing, controlling and minimizing crime and drug abuse-related consequences.

However, the drug situation in Southeast Asia is becoming increasingly complicated while the legalization of drug use, notably synthetic drugs is showing a sharp uptrend.

Therefore, the countries participating in the MoU should clarify major areas for future cooperation with a focus on flexibly applying three international conventions on drug control in line with each member nation, formulating drug control strategies of each country and the region, further enhancing the autonomy, direct participation and contribution and shared responsibility in the context of declining international resources for the fight against drugs and crime.

“The 2015 Ministerial Conference of GMS countries must serve as a qualitative forum aiming to promote cooperation and information exchange, share drug control experience, and work out strategic solutions for combating drugs, and improving the efficiency of multilateral and bilateral cooperation mechanisms in the sub-region.” Minister Thanh said.

At the meeting, participants discussed the illegal production and trafficking of drugs, trends and challenges of drug use in the region and adopted a GMS action plan to bolster cooperation and capacity building among relevant parties.

The trafficking of increased amount of illegal drugs and precursor is threatening the whole region. Annually, rings of organized crime make illicit profits of more than US$31 billion from illegally producing and trafficking synthetic drugs and heroin.

With increasing supply of synthetic drugs, particularly tablets of methamphetamine is becoming a menace to the region.

Producing methamphetamine in secret manufacturing rooms is the corollary of drug precursor trafficking, they emphasized.