The interception highlights to very important position of cooperation in tackling the quickly evolving unlawful medication commerce.
In its 2025 Annual Reportthe Worldwide Narcotics Management Board (INCB) stated that authorities used its pre-export notification platform to cease the diversion of three tons of the precursor 1-boc-4-piperidone – a chemical middleman used within the manufacture of fentanyl.
Had the cargo not been intercepted, it may have been used to fabricate an estimated 1.4 to three.3 tons of fentanyl – between 700 million and 1.6 billion doses of the lethal avenue drug.
The case, in March 2025, is one in every of a number of examples cited by the INCB as an example what it dubs an “worldwide success story” when it comes to cooperation.
“Tackling the trafficking and misuse of medication, whereas guaranteeing the supply of important medicines, has been carried out successfully over the past 60 years via the drug management conventions, a strong framework for working along with nearly common assist,” stated Board President Professor Sevil Atasoy.
“Our position is to bolster the cooperative efforts of nations and territories via our work.”
A system constructed on cooperation
The INCB is an unbiased, quasi-judicial physique mandated to watch implementation of the three worldwide drug management conventions – adopted in 1961, 1971 and 1988 – which type the spine of the worldwide drug management system.
Underneath these treaties, Governments present it with estimates and statistical reviews to watch the cultivation, manufacture and commerce of managed substances, with the goal of guaranteeing their availability for medical and scientific functions solely.
In line with the report, the effectivity of this technique has stored the diversion of legitimately produced narcotic medication into illicit markets “very low,” whereas diversion of psychotropic substances – akin to heroin and different opioids – has “just about stopped.”
In 2025 alone, greater than 190 nations and territories cooperated via the net pre-export notification (PEN) platform, monitoring over 34,000 deliberate shipments of internationally managed drug precursors.
Packages containing cocaine seized by the authorities in Ecuador. (file photograph)
What’s the INCB?
The Worldwide Narcotics Management Board (INCB) is an unbiased, quasi-judicial physique established beneath the 1961 Single Conference on Narcotic Medication.
It screens nationwide compliance with the three worldwide drug management conventions (1961, 1971 and 1988), overseeing the worldwide system that regulates narcotic medication and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific use whereas stopping diversion into illicit markets.
Its 13 members are elected by the UN Financial and Social Council for five-year phrases. The Board is headquartered in Vienna and is supported by a secretariat linked to the UN Workplace on Medication and Crime (UNODC).
Learn extra in regards to the Board right here.
New threats, shifting markets
Regardless of such cooperation, the Board warns that trafficking networks are adapting quickly.
Cocaine trafficking stays the fastest-growing illicit drug marketwith elevated manufacturing in South America driving enlargement into Asia and Africa.
In Europe, cocaine trafficking to Western and Central Europe has “dramatically elevated,” whereas the illicit manufacture of artificial medication continues to develop.
In North America, artificial drug overdoses decreased by 17 per cent in Canada and 27 per cent in the UShowever the Board cautioned that it’s “too early to evaluate whether or not the lower will develop right into a sustained development.”
In Africa, trafficking in pharmaceutical opioids – together with substandard merchandise – is described because the drug-related problem of best concern, whereas the South Asian area accounts for one third of the world’s estimated opioid customers.
Methamphetamine stays the dominant artificial drug menace in East and Southeast Asiawith report seizures reported.
Entry uneven
Whilst world provide of opioid painkillers stays steady, the Board highlighted persistent inequalities in entry to ache reduction medicines, notably in low- and middle-income nations.
Many nations proceed to report difficulties in procuring medicines containing morphine, and rising availability and affordability of psychotropic substances stays a precedence.
“Defending the well being of individuals world wide from the hazards of illicit medication is a standard and shared accountability,” Professor Atasoy stated.
“The worldwide drug management system depends on the willingness and capability of nations to work collectively.”
