Chapter IV. Measures to Suppress and Prevent Drug Abuse

Chapter IV. Measures to Suppress and Prevent Drug Abuse. Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse Regulated by Law International legal acts are realized on a national scale.

National measures in turn are of the three basic types suppression, prevention, and rehabilitation.

Legal measures of suppression are coercive measures in regard to crimes that have already been committed. They are a combination of criminal-legal, criminal-executive and legal-administrative measures. The criminal-legal measures must be fully compatible with the criminal law and registered in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They are expected to safeguard the public from the drug-related crimes by inflicting punishment on persons who have committed these crimes and also, in combination with it, in cases stipulated by the law, apply coercive measures of medical nature or, if need be, a system of guardianship.

These measures can be divided into two groups those referring to crime and those referring to punishment. Measures of the second group, though they are envisaged by the norms of the criminal law, seem to be closer to legal-executive measures, and can therefore be grouped, with a certain degree of relativity, into the legal-executive category. The legal-executive measures include punishment, coercive measures of medical nature, as well as the process of executing punishment and coercive measures of medical nature along with putting under guardianship, if required.

Legal-administrative measures are covered by the norms of the administrative law, establishing responsibility for the infringements of the law and regulating compulsory treatment of drug addicts. Measures to prevent narcotics are very diverse. Their aim is to exert influence on various elements such as on persons using drugs, sowing and raising drug-bearing crops, manufacturing, acquiring, storing and selling narcotic substances and committing other drug-related crimes on persons committing crimes with the aim of getting the means to purchase drugs or those undertaking criminal actions in the state of narcotic intoxication and on circumstances that are seen as causes and conditions of drug addiction, etc. The preventive influence on all these persons may take three forms persuasion, compulsion and stimulation.

The last two forms can only be applied if they are regulated by law. Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse Unregulated by Law In terms of goals these measures can be divided into general social and special ones. General social measures have to do with society s social and economic development, the rise in cultural, educational and moral standards of all citizens.

The economic development measures aim to increase the production of material benefits, as well as of intellectual output making the nation richer and the living standards higher.

Social measures are apparent in rational distribution of funds in increase the government provides for social needs. Cultural and educational measures aim to promote the development of art, literature, science and education they draw an ever-greater number of people into this process and ensure that they gain knowledge, know-how, and skills. Measures aiming to raise moral standards are expressed in inculcating an awareness of the need to abide by the social, particularly, legal, religious and other norms and rules of conduct in society.

All these measures are designed to prevent crimes and violations, including drug-related crimes, and drug abuse particularly. Special are those measures that prevent drug abuse as such, and crimes related to it, including those recommended by the international organizations and fora. These are, for example, measures to promote a healthy way of life without consumption of narcotics and censuring the harm caused by narcotics and drug-related crimes.

These measures are implemented by means of 1 education - lectures, presentations at schools and other training centers, statements on the radio, television or press 2 training law enforcement officers and medical personnel in the techniques of combating narcotics and drug-related crimes by creating special educational programs and setting up special training centers 3 treatment and rehabilitation of addicts 4 collection, analysis, summary, and transmission of information about narcotics, particularly, about new areas of drug-bearing plants, and methods of their production, illegal channels for their exportation, as well as the methods for moving them, using different kinds of transport 5 preventing the sowing and the growing of drug-bearing plants by replacing them with other crops and stimulating the farmers and providing them an all-round assistance 6 blocking the channels through which narcotics are moved along curbing the smuggling of drugs through the joint efforts of customs and law-enforcement officers of neighboring countries specializing in actions against narcotics 7 supervising the fulfillment of anti-drug laws regulating the sowing and growing of drug-bearing plants, drug circulation, etc 8 reducing the demand for drugs by preventing their transfer from the legal to the illegal domain, including the use of a daily dosage method which makes it possible to determine the correlation between the quantity of drugs necessary for medical and research needs and the volume of sale 9 introduction of remote control devices to estimate the scale of illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants in remote places and creating obstacles for laundering money and other property acquired as a result of drug trafficking.

In terms of the time, frame measures against narcotics and drug-related offenses can be divided into early warning, direct impact and postpenitentiary prophylactic.

The early warning measures are expected to exert influence on persons, who are not well-versed in drugs and their danger, and who are informed on the subject but do not take drugs. The preventive influence on poorly informed persons is made by disseminating knowledge.

In this respect the experience of the United States is worthy of attention and could be borrowed by the Russian Federation.

For as long as a quarter of a century, preschool children, especially, the ones who attend day care centers have been educated that any medicines, including drug-bearing ones are harmful for their health, if they are taken without a doctor s prescription and the knowledge of the exact dose. To achieve a more vivid effect an album for coloring pictures featuring narcotics and health is used. In Australia, there are centers for preventing drug abuse where school students between 5 and 12 years old have 7 lessons a year forming a certain attitude to narcotics, as well as an awareness of the danger of drug addiction.

The influence on persons who are aware of the harm of narcotics and do not take drugs can be achieved by tearing them away, so to speak, from their surroundings where drugs may be used or are used already.

This can be accomplished by conversation with individuals, their families, and colleagues living in similar environment. Direct impact prophylactic measures are expected to influence persons taking drugs, including drug addicts.

This impact brings or may bring positive results when medical treatment is combined with the social rehabilitation. Postpenitentiary measures should influence persons who have served prison terms for drug-related offenses by continuous treatment of drug addiction, securing the results of previous treatment, and neutralizing a possible unfavorable influence of their immediate surroundings, finding jobs and also forestalling the repetition of drug-related offenses.

International, National and Regional Measures In terms of their level, the measures to prevent drug abuse can be divided into international, national and regional. International measures are the ones, which are carried out on an international scale. They include a number of earlier listed special measures to prevent drug abuse. Apart from that, they also include measures carried out by the international agencies and organizations, such as 1 creation of programs to prevent the advancement of narcotics 2 assistance to countries in implementation of the conventions provisions 3 providing assistance in bringing national legislation in line with the conventions 4 training officers specializing in actions against narcotics for law-enforcement and other agencies of different countries 5 supporting the scientific development of laboratories in the members countries 6 providing financial, technical and other kinds of assistance to raise the effectiveness of national efforts against drug abuse and ensure access to the international system of information about narcotics.

It should be noted at this point that the Russian Federation adheres to the international measures because it has joined the world legal effort aiming to combat narcotics.

National measures to prevent drug abuse are the ones, which are carried out on the entire territory of the Russian Federation. Regional measures cover the territory of a region, city or district. Any of the mentioned general or special measures against narcotics can be used on a national or regional scale.

It should be stressed at this point, that the last few years have seen a sharp decline in the effort of law-enforcement bodies, government agencies and other organizations to prevent offenses, including drug abuse and drug-related crimes. This state of affairs cannot help but arouse deep concern. In this context the approval of the national program for combating drug addiction in the Russian Federation is a necessary step towards improving the work of preventing narcotics and drug-related crimes, along with other offenses.