Global Synthetics Monitoring: Analyses, Reporting and Trend (SMART) Program Regional Workshop for East and Southeast Asia was held through a webinar from 9 to 18 November 2020. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) organized this workshop with senior-level officials responsible for national drug forensics, law enforcement and information management from 14 numbers of East and Southeast Asian countries. Mr. Martin Raithelhuber, Manager of the Global SMART Program, also chaired the workshop this year, following the previous year.

The workshop, which should have been held via video conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was composed of two main sessions. The first one was a kick-off session where all the participating authorities joined. Starting with UNODC’s update of SMART implementation, participants shared regional synthetic drug situation during the first session. The second main session was composed of a series of country briefings for over seven days, two countries per day. Additionally, the participants exchanged views about the workshop’s major objectives and shared progress and outcomes on the implementation of the Program.

The primary objectives of the 2020 Regional Workshop included: update program counterparts on the implementation of the Global SMART Program; share information on latest developments observed in synthetic drug markets, the impact of COVID-19, responses at the national and regional levels; share of information on drug forensics and precursor chemicals, including drug signature and newly-identified chemicals, as well as concealment methods (i.e.,teabags) used by organized crime for methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs; share information on New psychoactive substances (NPS), including newly-identified substances, use, and trafficking routes; and discussion about steps for the future program implementation in the region.

During the Workshop, RILO AP presented our accomplishment of this year. RILO AP announced the concepts and outcomes of the Operation ICE BREAK II which was a joint operation to combat against Methamphetamine smuggling organized by RILO AP and introduced projects which demonstrated regional trends of Methamphetamine and NPS smuggling in Asia and the Pacific Region. RILO AP also asked for active participation and collaboration from working counterparts in coming operations to crackdown on the organized crimes and drug syndicates proactively.