Russia, China sign memorandum to jointly fight synthetic drugs

MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. Russia and China have recently stepped up efforts to combat drug trafficking and the associated problems of transnational organised crime, Russia's top enforcement official said on Monday. "In recent years, we have determined the main efforts of our cooperation, aimed primarily at the fight against transnational organised drug-related crime," the chief of Russia’s federal drug control service FSKN, Viktor Ivanov, said at a working meeting with Chinese Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun. Guo emphasised the need to boost cooperation in the fight against Afghan heroin. "Drug trafficking nurtures terrorism," he said. "We should strengthen cooperation in this sphere since both China and Russia are suffering from drugs emanating from Afghanistan's territory." During their meeting, the two men signed a memorandum on cooperation between Russia’s FSKN and the Chinese Public Security Ministry in the fight against the production and sale of new psychoactive substances, FSKN’s press service said. "The memorandum envisages immediate exchange of information about identification of new chemical compounds. We will promptly inform the Chinese side and the Chinese side will inform us," Ivanov told journalists. The document also outlined ways to prevent crimes related to trafficking of new psychoactive substances, he said, adding that those crimes were quite different from the ones related to trafficking of hashish, cannabis or heroin. The participants in the meeting also discussed prospects for development of bilateral cooperation in the fight against drugs, and those involved in drug-related crime, alongside mechanisms for anti-drug cooperation within the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), comprising Russia, China and the Central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. At the beginning of this year, Russia introduced amendments to several laws prohibiting the sale and use of new psychoactive substances such as synthetic marijuana, popularly known by the street name "Spice". Controls adopted by Russia’s State Duma lower house of parliament on January 23 and approved by the Federation Council upper house on January 28 determine criminal liability for trafficking potentially dangerous psychoactive substances alongside administrative liability for their use and involving minors in their consumption. Use of such substances is allowed only for scientific and learning purposes, activities of certain federal agencies and investigations. Read more