It gives me particular pleasure to present the results of the risk assessment undertaken by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) on the substance para -methoxymetha mpheta mine (PMMA). The risk assessment was carried out under the terms of a joint action adopted on 16 June 1997 by the Council of the European Union (EU) (1).

The meeting to assess the risks of PMMA was convened under the auspices of the Scientific Committee of the EMCDDA and was held on 29 October 2001 at the Centre’s headquarters in Lisbon. It is the fifth such exercise undertaken to date by the EMCDDA (2).

The meeting resulted in a formal ‘Report on the risk assessment of PMMA in the framework of the joint action on new synthetic drugs’, which was drawn up and adopted the same day by the meeting. The report was submitted the following day to the Belgian Presidency of the horizontal working party on drugs of the Council of the EU and to the European Commission for further action, as foreseen in the joint action.

As a result of the evidence and conclusions presented in the report, in December 2001, the European Commission presented an initiative to the Council to make PMMA subject to measures of control in all Member States.

On 28 February 2002, the Council adopted the decision (3) to submit PMMA to control measures and criminal penalties in the 15 EU countries. The Council decision stipulates that, within three months, Member States shall introduce the necessary measures in their national law, in compliance with their obligations under the 1971 United Nations (UN) Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Since 13 September 1999, one other new synthetic drug, 4-MTA,
has similarly been subject to control measures by a Council decision in the framework of the joint action of 16 June 1997.

Such a concrete result at a political level confirms the effectiveness of the rapid-response mechanism provided by the joint action on new synthetic drugs. It also provides strong encouragement for the development over the last four years of sound cooperation between the EMCDDA and its institutional partners involved in the risk assessment process, including the European Police Office (Europol),
the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products (EMEA) and the European Commission. In particular, I would like to underline the excellent work done by the EMCDDA’s early-warning system via the European network of national focal points and through Europol’s national units, which collected information on the social and health aspects of the drug and implications for illegal drugs trafficking.

I would like to thank all those who participated in the risk assessment process for PMMA for the high quality of the work carried out. This makes a valuable
scientific contribution, validated at European level, based on knowledge of MDMA analogues and, as such, gives proven support to political decision-making.

Georges Estievenart

Executive Director, EMCDDA

(1) Joint action concerning the ‘information exchange, risk assessment and the control of new synthetic drugs’ (OJ L 167, 25.6.1997). A joint action is a decision adopted unanimously by the EU Member States within the framework of the third pillar of the Treaty on European Union (cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs). Synthetic drugs are psychoactive substances produced in laboratories and not derived from natural products. They include 3,4-methylenedioxyN-methylamphetamine (MDMA, ‘ecstasy’), other amphetamines and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
(2) The four previous risk assessment exercises concerned the substances N-methyl-1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-butanamine (MBDB), 4-methylthioamphetamine (4-MTA), gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and ketamine.
(3) It came into effect on 7 March 2002.