European Monitoring Center for Drug and Drug Addiction, Europol, EU and European Neighborhood Policy member states’ experts visited Expert-Forensic Main Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The meeting was also attended by the representatives of MIA Academy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs. The mentioned visit was planned on the basis of the request of the member states of the European Neighborhood Policy in order to discuss the monitoring of the new psychotropic substances and existing challenges. The guests were hosted by the head of Expert-Forensic Main Division Davit Sujashvili and other representatives of the same division.
In the meeting experts and specialists from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Israel, Moldova, Ukraine, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Georgia took part.
Representatives of Expert-Forensic Main Division held presentation which was aimed at raising awareness and discussing challenges related to new psychotropic substances; MIA representatives reviewed capacities of the chemical lab, legislative changes implemented for controlling new psychotropic substances, which was elaborated as a result of the joint efforts of experts and specialists from MIA, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs. It’s a well-known fact that after enacting the legislative changes, cases of smuggling new psychotropic substances through the state border have significantly decreased and consumption by 90%.
Presentation was also aimed at sharing legislative practice to the experts of the EU and European Neighborhood Policy member states on controlling new psychotropic substances.
After the completion of the presentation guests viewed the chemical lab of Expert-Forensic Main Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs where expertise on drugs, including new psychotropic substances is conducted.
Representatives of Expert-Forensic Main Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs familiarized guests with progress achieved as a result of reforms implemented in the last years. Reforming of the Expert-Forensic Main Division implied not only the improvement of the legislation but also equipping division with contemporary appliances and capacity building of the lab. Experts of the division were also re-trained. It should be pointed out that at this moment identification of new psychotropic substances is available at the laboratory located in Tbilisi and in regional ones as well.
