Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Profession: Sitting senior judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the highest appellate municipal court of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Pages: 715-721

The Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory 715

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THE CARIBBEAN REGIONAL

DRUG TESTING LABORATORY

Within recent years two developments have conspired to justify regional initiatives to

establish on a collective basis a laboratory for the testing of drugs, both legal and

proscribed. On the one hand, it has long since been recognised that the Governments

of the Region had a responsibility to their peoples to ensure that pharmaceutical drugs

conform with the appropriate standards of purity, strength and quality and as a

consequence relevant drug control agencies should have laboratories for the testing of

drugs. The establishment of drug testing laboratories has been made desirable by the

practice of transnational pharmaceutical companies headquartered in developed countries

of dumping sub-standard drugs in developing countries with damaging effects on their

populations. On the other hand, the emergence of the Caribbean as an important transit

point for illegal drugs, especially cocaine and marijuana issuing from South America

and the Caribbean and destined for Europe and North America, has aggravated the

illegal drug traffic and increased the demand for forensic evidence to prosecute drug

traffickers. Currently, the Caribbean region is second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in

the incidence of AIDS and the cost of non-generic drugs to fight this scourge has become

a drain on national treasuries which have to take appropriate measures to ensure that

the claims made for relevant pharmaceutical drugs are justified in terms of purity, quality

and effects. At the same time the size of the populations in the Caribbean Community

nation states does not justify the establishment of laboratory facilities in every jurisdiction

- hence the Regional Drug Testing Laboratory.

The functions of the Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory have been

identified as carrying out microbiological and pharmacological tests on samples of

drugs submitted by participating Governments and reporting the results thereof;

performing biological availability tests on selected types of drugs; investigating the

stability of drugs under conditions of storage in the Caribbean, and liaising with all

appropriate agencies interested in drug testing and providing information and advisory

services to support the activities of drug officials in the Region. The Regional Drug

Testing Laboratory has a Technical Advisory Committee to advise the Director on all

aspects of the operation of the Regional facility. The Technical Advisory Committee

comprises representatives from Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago

and two designated by the other Participating Governments. The personnel of the

Laboratory consist of a Director and such other staff as may be required from time to

time. The Government chemist of Jamaica serves as ex officio Director of the Laboratory.