ONCB to Drive the 7th Drug Monitoring Network Operational Workshop

News / View / ADMN

Wednesday 6th of March 2019

ONCB to Drive the 7th Drug Monitoring Network Operational Workshop

                  The Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) hosted the 7th ADMN Workshop at Chatrium Hotel Riverside Bangkok, during 5 – 7 March 2019. The Workshop opening ceremony was presided over by Pol.Gen. Dr. Ruangsak Jritake, Advisor to Minister of Justice. About 100 representatives from 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS), ASEAN Secretariat, Thailand Substance Abuse Academic Network, and ONCB staff attended the Workshop.

                   The workshop under ASEAN Drug Monitoring Network Project, was organized by ASEAN Narcotics Cooperation Center (ASEAN-NARCO). The objective was to share information among AMS on drug situation in the region, conduct the 4th drug monitoring report of ASEAN region, and review the ADM Report System Manual which provided AMS with the same working standard.

                    According to the previous three reports (2015-2017), major drugs of abuse in ASEAN were ATS (tablet methamphetamine and ICE), followed by heroin, cannabis and opium. Those have significantly been increasing. The illicit drugs to be monitored closely in the ASEAN were categorized into 2 groups:

                 The first group was ATS, the most widely abused drugs in ASEAN.

                 The second group is NPS such as XLR-11 or synthetic cocaine which was widespread in ASEAN, particularly in Viet Nam. They tended to significantly increase in both types and quantities. Fly High, a party drug, was found in the Philippines while ketamine has widely been abused in Thailand.

                 Data in AMD Report System in 2018 (January-June) showed that drug cases increased. Most of them (212,285 cases) took place in Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia respectively. The data also showed that various foreign nationals committed drug offences in ASEAN as both traffickers and couriers. However, 99% of them were ASEAN nationals. Besides, according to the in-depth information shared among AMS in the previous workshops, the linkage between digital currency or Bitcoin and suspicious activities were reported such as drug trade via the Internet by using bitcoin, and drug smuggling via postal services. Therefore, strict drug monitoring in ASEAN is strongly needed.

                  ADMN workshop was in the Phrase 3: Database Development, which achieved the goals according to the work plan. Then, AMS planned to move forward to Phase IV: Improvement of ADM data collection mechanism in ASEAN Member States and Phase V: Technical Development.