This blog post was published under the 2015 to 2024 Conservative government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Austria

28th March 2017 Vienna, Austria

Legal highs and “NPS”: concrete steps

What do Project NEPTUNE and New Zealand have in common?

Both are working to tackle the problem of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), also known as legal highs.

I recently opened an expert panel in Vienna, organised by the UK and New Zealand with the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, on tackling NPS. The New Zealand Associate Minister of Health, Hon. Peter Dunne, spoke on policy in New Zealand. Dima Abdulrahim from Project NEPTUNE described the practical work her team was doing on the ground in the UK. Justice Tettey of the UNODC chaired the discussion.

The event took place in the margins of the UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), of which the UK has been a member since its foundation 60 years ago.

The UK campaigns actively with partners to shape international drugs policy.  In recent years that has included leading the global response to NPS.

In practical terms, that has meant working with the EU, G7 and UN to put NPS on the international political agenda and, through the CND, to deliver concrete measures. Measures such as setting up a global early warning system at the UNODC to allow the UN to aggregate data on emerging NPS trends.  The goal is to inform all UN Member States on a phenomenon that is constantly evolving as new substances are developed.

The UK has also worked with the International Narcotics Control Board to create a law enforcement taskforce dedicated to tackling NPS trafficking.  This year we secured approval for a resolution at the CND’s annual meeting in Vienna, focused on tackling the health harms of NPS and promoting international responses to the issue.

What next?  The UK will continue to take a leading role on NPS.  That will include supporting the UNODC and member states as they implement UN NPS resolutions; and pushing for the expansion of the UNODC’s Early Warning System. We will also work closely with the UNODC Drugs Lab to support their work as a trusted information source for evidence-based decisions to shape future drug policy at the UN level.

The UK is working with UNODC and partners to tackle NPS.  It’s a busy agenda. Watch this space.

About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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CND NPS United Nations UNODC

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