Between 14-15 May 2018, the SCO Secretariat held a Meeting of the Senior Officials of the SCO Member States' Counter-Narcotics Agencies. This event involved all eight sides, including for the first time Indian and Pakistani representatives.
The sides exchanged opinions on the situation concerning illegal drug trafficking in the SCO region and possibilities for streamlining practical measures of intra-SCO counter-narcotics cooperation.
Those present at the meeting discussed draft documents for jointly countering illegal drug sales as well as the implementation of drug-addiction prevention projects in the SCO region in the run-up to the Meeting of Heads of the SCO Member States' Counter-Narcotics Agencies.
Between March-April 2018, members of working expert groups of the above-mentioned Meeting of Heads of the SCO Member States' Counter-Narcotics Agencies discussed law enforcement efforts to thwart narcotics-related crimes, to control precursors, to reduce demand for narcotic drugs and to streamline the contractual-legal framework of cooperation. During their meeting, members of a working expert group to reduce the demand for narcotic drugs visited a facility providing supportive therapy for opioid-dependent persons.
The Meeting of the Senior Officials of the SCO Member States' Counter-Narcotics Agencies was instituted by a decision of the above-mentioned Meeting of Heads of the SCO Member States' Counter-Narcotics Agencies of 19 May 2009. The Meeting of the Senior Officials is called on to help draft interstate programmes and plans to counter illegal sales of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, to prepare for and hold science-practical conferences, seminars, conferences and working meetings and to facilitate experience exchanges in this area.