Quality assurance and quality management are essential elements in the work of all drug-testing laboratories and the role they play in ensuring the quality of test results, in particular the identification of drugs cannot be underestimated. The quality and reliability of these results are a matter of safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms and ensuring public safety and effective law enforcement. 

UNODC's International Quality Assurance Programme, which includes the International Collaborative Exercises (ICE), has been operating since 1995 and forms part of the scientific and forensic services provided to enhance quality assurance in forensic drug testing laboratories worldwide.