Reitox Academy national seminar 'Establishing a national Early Warning System (EWS) in Serbia'

Establishing a national Early Warning System (EWS) is among the key priorities of Serbia. The EMCDDA, together with the Drug Monitoring Centre under the Ministry of Health of Serbia, organised a first workshop in December 2015 gathering about 45 participants representing a wide range of governmental partners. These included the Ministry of Health, the Ministries of Justice, Education and Social Support, the Europol National Unit, Customs, the Border Authority, and also non-governmental partners, such as forensic laboratories, the national toxicology centre, the forensic medicine centre, the faculties of chemistry and pharmacology, the Institute of Public Health, drug treatment centres, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Country Office and the EU Delegation. The participants discussed how new psychoactive substances (NPS), and their use, are monitored and controlled, and highlighted a need to further increase national laboratories’ capacities for the detection of NPS.