The Seventh Meeting of State Commission Supporting Suppression of Distributing New Psychoactive Substances was held at the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. The Commission is composed of the representatives from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and Ministry of Finance of Georgia. The State Commission meets every month and conducts permanent monitoring over the implementation of relevant legislation and over the challenges related to new psychoactive substances in Georgia.
At the Meeting the agencies, within the scope of their competences, analyzed the situation related to illicit traffic in new psychoactive substances existing in the country. It was stated that the implementation of the legislation has been conducted effectively and a clear tendency of decreasing has been detected. According to the data presented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the numbers of illicit traffic in new psychoactive substances throughout the whole territory of Georgia significantly decreased in November 2014, as well as in previous months. According to the information presented by the Customs Service of the Ministry of Finance, no facts of illegally importing so-called “Bio Drugs” across the border was detected in November 2014.
At the State Commission meeting due attention was devoted towards discussing a draft of Second Quarterly Report on Existing Situation on New Psychoactive Substances in Georgia. The Second Quarterly Report draft was prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, based on the information received from the agencies involved in the activities of the Commission and in accordance with the Law of Georgia “On New Psychoactive Substances”. In line with the Law requirements, the Report is subject to publication, at the web-page of Drug Policy at the MIA official site; its publication ensures transparency of the activities of the State Commission, availability of the information and accountability of the Commission before the society.
Furthermore, the UNODC 2013 Questionnaire on New Psychoactive Substances was reviewed at the State Commission meeting and, upon the agreement among the participating agencies, future plans have been defined in order to ensure compliance with the commitments taken by Georgia before the international community.
Among other important issues, the State Commission members also discussed the conference on new psychoactive substances which is planned to be held in April 2015; the conference will be organized by the EMCDDA and will take place in Georgia.
Once again, the State Commission members highlighted the significance of close inter-agency cooperation in fight against illicit traffic in NPS and defined the issues to be discussed at the next meeting.
