On 2 March 2020, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov had a meeting with Director of the National Information-Analytical Centre on Drug Control at the Government of Uzbekistan Olim Narzullayev on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna.
The officials outlined the preparations being made for a joint UNODC and SCO event devoted to countering drug trafficking via the Darknet.
They also discussed ways of encouraging anti-drug cooperation, the implementation of the Working Plan to implement the SCO Anti-Drug Strategy Action Programme aimed at improving the system to counter drug trafficking, preventing drug addiction, treating and rehabilitating drug addicts in the SCO space.
Mr Norov highly praised Uzbekistan's initiative to develop a project of a single questionnaire for high school pupils in order to find out if they use psychoactive drugs and are informed about the consequences, which was supported by all the SCO member states.
Mr Narzullayev noted that the SCO could become an effective platform for practical multilateral cooperation to counter new drug threats and the creation of synthetic and "pharmacy" drugs.
The officials had a preliminary discussion regarding the idea to hold roundtable discussions and joint events in Uzbekistan under the auspices of the SCO involving all the interested international and regional organisations. The SCO Secretary-General added that the Secretariat was ready to cooperate on this issue.