The 5th WHO - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Expert Consultation on New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), took place on 24 and 25 September 2018 at WHO in Geneva, and focused specifically on the non-medical use of opioids.
An increasing trend in the non-medical use of opioids, both medicines and new psychoactive substances (NPS) with opioid effects, such as fentanyl analogues, has recently been observed. Several of these substances are extremely potent and harmful and this is of great concern for public health and law enforcement authorities in many countries.
This year around fifty experts from different disciplines and from countries and organizations in North and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East discussed current challenges and solutions from the supply and demand sides.
The Expert Consultation showed that the problem with the non-medical use of opioids may be larger and more complex than previously expected. It affects the population from youth to the elderly and creates problems in terms of health, law enforcement, economics and social relations.
The meeting yielded a number of concrete recommendations to diminish the non-medical use of synthetic opioids. These recommendations emphasized the need to improve and develop specific prevention and treatment guidelines, but also stressed the increasing necessity of information exchange and collaboration between health and enforcement authorities.