Chemical Precursors Course for GCC Officers Opens in Doha

Doha, September 23 (QNA) - A specialist course on chemical precursors Sunday opened at the GCC Criminal Information Centre to Combat Drugs (GCC-CICCD) in Doha on Sunday. The course which focuses on the need to collect information for a database covering manufacturing locations, modes of trafficking, export, distribution of chemical precursors will continue up to 29th of this month, the Ministry of Interior said. The Director of the Centre Colonel Saqr Rashid Al Meraikhi said that the officers from GCC countries engaged in the fight against illicit drugs trafficking are attending the course. Chemical Precursors are defined as compounds that are required in the synthetic or extraction processes of drug production and become incorporated into the drug molecule. Colonel Al Meraikhi said the course will also discuss the need to co-operate with international institutions to create a database of those hazardous materials, as well as legislative and legal measures to control chemical precursors, GCC efforts to control them and to identify the most important countries where they are manufactured and exported from. "The problem with chemical precursors is that they are not banned and monitored on basis of the purpose it is used. It can be used for useful industrial purposes; as well it can be exploited to make illegal drugs. This requires that any quantity of precursors brought into the country be closely watched and followed strictly, Colonel Al Meraikhi said. He further said that the sessions will address the chemical precursors as a serious source for the synthesis of drugs from chemicals present in the market that are normally used in many industries such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, foodstuffs, textiles, dyes, paints, sterilization and disinfection items, glass industry and petroleum industries; but experts in chemistry or pharmacists can convert those materials to synthetic narcotic substances. It should be watched closely whether the factories are using it legally in non-harmful materials or working on the production of narcotic substances, he said. The training sessions cover an overview of the development of trade of chemical precursors and its global trade in terms of legislation, control measures and trafficking, its legal production and distribution networks, strengthening procedures and measures to control precursors and monitor e-commerce and enhancing control on local, regional and international manufacturing and trade of chemical precursors, he added. (QNA)