Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

There are two documents, which have been mentioned earlier that are

very important in controlling drug abuse because they affect the "sore

points" of narco-business. Both of these documents need to be applied in

the Russian Federation. One, from 12th December 1988, is a statement by the

Committee on Banking Rules and Banking Supervision. Its aim is to prevent

the criminal use of the banking system for laundering money gained from the

trade in drugs. The other is the decision by the heads of state and

government of the 7 leading industrial countries and by the European

Commission Chairman. Under this decision taken at the 15th Economic Summit

in Paris in July 1989, a Special Operations Group on financial issues was

set up.

It must also be noted that the past few years have seen the convocation

of numerous official and unofficial conferences, symposia and meetings of

experts specializing in combating drug abuse, including one held in 1996 in

Baku. They all worked out and recommended for implementation various

measures to control narcotics.

Par. 2. Tendencies in the World Community's Reaction to Drug Abuse.

The world community counteracts the negative tendencies of drug abuse.

This can be clearly seen in the materials of the world fora and in the

international legal acts.

The Overriding Tendency of Combating Drug Abuse:

The overriding tendency is the expanding scale, and improvement of

activities, as well as of the international legal regulations combating

drug abuse. The core of this tendency is expressed in the following

trajectory from the study of drug abuse, and exerting influence by the

world community through establishing international control over legitimate

distribution and consumption of drugs, to the adoption and implementation

of the increasingly diversified, detailed, rationalized and tough measures

combating illegal drug trafficking and criminal drug money laundering.

These measures are being worked out by international agencies and

organizations and are aimed at fully blocking the spread of narcotics.

This overall tendency can be seen in several of its more concrete

manifestations, such as bringing the problem of narcotics to the forefront;

expanding the sphere of the international legal regulation by amending

existing measures and approving new international legal norms; making

actions against drug abuse more purposeful by revealing its most vulnerable

spots and controlling them by using new, more perfected international legal

norms; ensuring a more universal, unified and standardized understanding of

international legal terms regulating narcotics and; adopting international

legal norms that pave the way for a real opportunity to combat narcotics;

bringing international and national legal acts in line concerning actions

against narcotics in the process of nations joining international legal

acts and ratifying them; increasing the number of countries taking part in

international conferences on actions against narcotics and the number of

countries joining international legal acts and setting up and expanding the

functions of specialized international agencies that work to combat

narcotics.

Bringing to the Foreground Problems of Combating Drug Abuse:

Nearly 80 years since the convocation of the Shanghai Opium Commission

in 1909, the first official body on the international scene that had drawn

attention to the problems of narcotics, its regulation and gradual

restriction, public attention to the problem has been steadily growing in

proportion to the rise in the degree of public danger and the spread of

narcotics. This is manifested by the increasing number of conferences,

meetings, and symposia that concentrate on working out and adopting various

international legal acts regulating measures to combat narcotics along with

producing recommendations aimed at improving these types of measures and

their application.

Expanding the Sphere of International Legal Regulation:

Expanding the sphere of international legal regulation means that each

successive forum and each new international legal act against narcotics has

focused on such areas of drug abuse, which have not been previously subject

of international regulation.

In particular, the 1912 Hague Convention was the first to define types

of narcotics - raw opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine and some

others, which were placed under international control. Later this list was

expanded. Under the Convention of 19th February 1925, some additional raw

materials such as coca leaves, raw cocaine and Indian hemp (cannabis) were

included. Also any other drug capable of causing harmful affects, according

to the finding of a competent body, could be added to the list. Under the

Protocol of 19th November 1948 the list was further extended by synthetic

drugs that had come into being by that time and had not been regulated by

any of the previously adopted international legal acts. The 1961 Uniform

Convention contained a much longer list of narcotics allowing for further

subsequent changes and additions.

The 1912 Hague Convention obliged the participating countries to pass

national legislation controlling the production, distribution, importation

and exportation of raw opium as well as measures scaling down production,

domestic trade and consumption of smoke opium, banning its import and

export. The Agreement of 11th February 1925 envisaged setting up a

government monopoly for opium production and monopoly associations for

opium trade. The Geneva Convention of 19th February 1925 introduced new

measures, such as exercising control over the activities of persons who

held permits to manufacture, import, export, sell, distribute and apply

narcotics, as well as control over the premises where these persons

practiced their trade. The Convention also limited the number of ports,

cities and other populated centers through which the import and export of

drugs was allowed, and urged the adoption of domestic legislation

qualifying violation of these provisions of the Convention as criminal

offence. The Convention of 13th July 1931 formulated the following

additional measures: extradition of criminals for committing drug-related

crimes; setting up domestic government agencies to implement the

Convention's decisions and regulations, supervision over the trade in drug-

bearing medicines, listed in the Convention, and a clamp-down on illegal

drug trafficking. The Bangkok agreement of 27th November 1931 contained

such amendments as limiting retail opium trade to government agencies only.

For persons under 21 years of age visiting opium dens, was a criminal

offence. The Convention of 26th June 1936 was the first to introduce the

word "struggle" and provided for a much wider range of criminal drug-

related offenses. Under the Protocol of 19th November 1948, the signatories

had to inform the UN about any substance that had the potential of being

abused in the future.

The 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments) broadened international

legal norms, over new aspects of drug abuse. For example, it established a

special procedure for cultivating narcotic-bearing plants and manufacturing

narcotic substances, it established uniform rules for storing drugs. These

procedures bound the signatories to cooperate with each other and with

authorized international organizations in arranging and holding campaigns

against illegal drug trafficking, and in applying imprisonment and against

those guilty of premeditated drug-related crimes.

The 1988 UN Convention contained recommendations to define concrete

premeditated actions as crimes in national legislation. An extended list of

these crimes was included into the concept "illegal drug trafficking." The

Convention also listed such measures as medical treatment of addicts,

restoration of their working capabilities or social re-integration under

subsequent supervision. The Convention outlined recommendations on using

controlled deliveries at the international level on the basis of mutual

accords.

Purposeful Actions Against Drug Abuse:

Intensifying actions against drug abuse by revealing and attacking

vulnerable spots of narco-business through the help of new, more perfect

law as the world community increasing realized the danger of narcotics, it

displayed a growing ability to apply new international legal norms. As a

result the world community has been approving appropriate legal norms to

check the spread of narcotics. For example, on the basis of the 1912 Hague

Convention the signatories pledged to undertake measures to gradually stop

the production, domestic trade, and consumption of smoke opium, as well as

to ban its import and export. The 1988 Convention registered the provision

on controlled drug deliveries at the international level on the basis of

mutual accords. In accordance with the statement by the Committee for

Banking Rules and Banking Supervision of 12th December 1988 and the

decision of July 1989 by the heads of states and governments of the seven

leading industrial nations and by the European Commission Chairman,

measures were taken to prevent criminal use of the banking system for

laundering money obtained from drug trade.

The Universalization of Legal Norms:

The trend to ensure universalization, unification and standardization

of the international legal norms on narcotics first manifested it self in

the 1912 Hague Convention, the Convention of 19th February 1925 and the

Uniform Convention. These contained uniform lists of controlled narcotics.

The Convention of 13th July 1931 introduced the notions "production",

"refining", "processing", "reserve storage stocks", "government storage

stocks", "export-import", "cultivation", "illegal trafficking",

"territory", "manufacture", "preparation", "storage stocks", and "special

storage stocks". The 1961 Uniform Convention and the 1988 Convention

provided unified lists of socially dangerous activities, qualified as

criminal offenses.

Raising the Effectiveness of the International Legal Norms:

More and more specific and not just declarative norms ensuring

effective and lasting actions against narcotics have been introduced into

law-enforcement practice at each new stage in the international legal

regulation of narcotics. The adoption of these international legal norms is

paving the way for a real opportunity to oppose drug abuse.

Whereas the 1909 Shanghai Opium Commission failed to generate any

constructive measures against narcotics, the 1912 Hague Convention managed

to define the kinds of narcotics to be placed under international control.

The Agreement of 11th February 1925 provided for the establishment of

monopoly institutions to deal with opium and for the transfer of the smoke

opium production to a government monopoly. The Convention of 19th February

1925 extended the list of controlled narcotics and introduced new

restrictions. Appropriate provisions of the 1931 Bangkok Agreement, the

Convention of 13th July 1931, of 26th June 1936, the Protocol of 19th

January 1948, the 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments), the 1988 UN

Convention and documents of the European Community of 1988 and 1989 as

discussed above, have also been raising the effectiveness of the drive

against narcotics.

Bringing into Line the International and National Legal Norms:

Increasingly international and national legal norms against narcotics

are brought into line as nations sign and ratify international acts. This

leads to the mutual enrichment of the international and national legal

norms aimed at blocking narcotics. On the one hand, the world community

elevates national legal norms to international level by instituting

international legal norms. On the other hand, nations ratify international

legal acts thus adopting them as domestic legislation. International and

domestic legal norms coincide almost completely sometimes, in such areas

the list of narcotics and drug-related actions considered a criminal

offense, as well as the procedure of filing criminal charges against

persons committing drug-related crimes, and their extradition.

The Rise in the Number of Countries Taking Part in International

Conferences:

There has been an increase in the number of nations taking part in

international conferences on narcotics and in the number of nations signing

international legal acts. This is evident in the fact that 13 nations took

part in the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909, whereas 73 nations attended

the New York conference, which adopted the Uniform Convention in 1961.

Since then, many nations have ratified the Uniform Convention and the 1988

UN Convention and more are going to sign them.

Setting up Specialized Agencies:

The world community has created and keeps expanding the functions of

the specialized agencies dealing with narcotics, such as Permanent Central

Committee on Drugs of 1925, the Special Commission of 1928, the Control

Commission of 1931, the Commission on Drugs of the UN Economic and Social

Council of 1961 and the UN International Committee on Drug Control, and the

special operations group on financial matters of 1989 dealing with money

laundering resulting from drug trafficking. These agencies handle more and

more functions in response to the ever more sophisticated dissemination of

drugs, and money laundering resulting from drug trafficking.

The reaction of the world community to narcotics examined above shows a

deeper understanding of this dangerous phenomenon, along with the

increasing sophistication of measures against it. One can predict that this

tendency will remain steadfast and keep progressing.

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-

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