In the framework of cooperation with the UN Office Regional Programme on Drugs and Crime for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries, the State Forensic Examination Committee of the Republic of Belarus conducted a training session «The laboratory analysis of prohibited psychoactive substances» for representatives of forensic institutions from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Tajikistan. The event was held on September 2 -13 on the basis of the Central Office of the Committee.

The experience of Belarusian forensic chemists in counteracting drug crime is well known and constantly arouses high interest from foreign colleagues. The State Committee constantly monitors the drug situation in the Republic of Belarus and in the countries of near and far abroad, during which the facts of detection of new synthetic psychoactive substances, so-called «designer drugs», are monitored. So, most of the substances, added to the Republican List, were prohibited on a proactive basis, that means before their first emergence on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. There has not been a single case of detection of an uncontrolled psychotropic substance or narcotic drug in Belarus since 2014. Our country is currently the only one in the world where such issues are resolved within a few days.

The UN Office Regional Programme on Drugs and Crime for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries is an important platform for building and strengthening cooperation in the countries of Western and Central Asia in counteraction drug spread and transnational organized crime in the region.

In the framework of the training at the State Committee, the representatives of foreign experts institutions took a course of lectures and practical classes, got acquainted with the equipment and the system for detecting and identifying new psychoactive substances in the studied materials, with the monitoring system of drug situation, with the legislation of the Republic of Belarus on the control of drug and psychotropic substance trafficking, including new psychoactive substances.

The coordinator of the UN Office Regional Programme on Drugs and Crime for Afghanistan and Neighboring Countries took part in working meetings, a high level of training organization was noted, the interest in getting more detailed information about the main provisions of anti-drug legislation and the procedure for establishing state control over the circulation of new psychoactive substances in the Republic of Belarus were expressed, as well as the main tendencies in the drug situation in our country.