What a drug lab looks like – in Vienna

The crystals are colourless and brittle.  They could be an illegal narcotic substance.

How to find out?

Here at the UK Mission to the United Nations in Vienna we work closely with the UN office on Drugs and Crime.  Policy on drugs, which are produced and consumed in countries across the world, is a classic example of a field where international cooperation is essential – for example, to decide which drugs are harmful and help to tackle them through co-ordinated action.

Close followers of my twitter account @LeighTurnerFCO (do follow if you are not doing so already) will know that at the last Commission on Narcotic Drugs, held in Vienna in March, the UK chaired the latest meeting of the International Action Group on New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), which brings together over 30 countries and international organisations to drive the international response to these substances, and led a side event on tackling NPS.

A balanced approach between tackling the organised criminal networks who traffic and distribute illegal drugs and providing help and treatment to people with a drug dependence problem is central to the international discussion on drugs.

So what about those white crystals?

It turns out they were methamphetamines.

I know because the UNODC runs a drug testing lab right here in Vienna which, amongst other things, provides drug-testing kits to numerous countries.  I visited it recently, for the second time, to learn more about the work of the lab, under its British Head, Justice Tettey.

You can see a video describing the visit below, showing both how to test for cocaine and a UK-funded early warning system to track the global spread of new psychoactive substances.  The video also has a great sound track produced right here in the British Embassy in Vienna.  Look, listen and learn.