CONTENTS:
Number:
Pages:
1. Introduction
2-4
Chapter 1. Concept, Manifestations and Tendencies of
Drug Abuse
4-14
2. The Concept and Manifestation of Drug Abuse
4-11
3. Tendencies of Development
11-14
Chapter II. System and Classification of Measures to Overcome
Drug Abuse
14-22
4. System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
14-17
5. Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
17-22
Chapter III. Drug Abuse in the International Law
22-38
6. International Fora and Legal Acts on Drugs
22-35
7. Tendencies in the World Community’s Reaction to Drug Abuse. 35-38
Chapter IV. Measures to Suppress and Prevent Drug Abuse 38-40
Chapter V. Organized Measures to Counteract Narcotics 41-59
8. General Provisions for Counteracting Narcotics
41-47
9. Organization of Medical Counteraction to Narcotics
47-51
10. Enforcement of Legal Measures of Narcotics Counteraction 51-54
11. Other Organizational Measures to Combat Narcotics
54-58
12. Conclusion
58-59
Introduction
The 20th century has witnessed the spread of narcotics to the entire
world. In the past narcotics in the natural economy were confined to
territories where drug-bearing plants were grown. By the end of century
drug addiction has become a worldwide socially dangerous trend.
Narco-dealers making fabulous profits infect more and more people and
even entire social groups with drug addiction. Narcotics have long since
gone beyond the borders of traditional drug-producing areas and have
infiltrated all the countries of the world, exerting its malicious
effect on their peoples. It has affected social, economic, political and
biological aspects of life.
Statistics is constantly reporting the spread of drug addiction and the
growth in the number of drug addicts on file at medical institutions, as
well as the rise in officially recorded drug-related crimes.
Drug abuse has become a real plague of the 20th century in many
countries of the world and may become the plague of this country in
particular.
The pleasurable sensations of comfort and satisfaction that a person
experiences using narcotics is much greater than that of alcohol thus
making the repetition necessary. Consequently, dependence on drugs and
the desire to enlarge the dose or experiment with the new and more
powerful drugs increases. Gradually the desire for dope becomes so
overwhelming that it degrades the addict’s individuality. The transition
from experimentation to dependence is no longer a secret for it has been
studied thoroughly. Profit seeking dealers expand the drug market at any
cost by supplying drugs to more and more addicts taking advantage of
their weaknesses.
Drug sales are the closing stage in drug trafficking. Drug trade earns
huge profits that cover the costs of cultivating drug-bearing plants,
producing (or illegally acquiring from medical institutions)
transportation, sale expenses, and the bribery of officials, including
those of the law enforcement agencies. Since illegal drug trafficking is
extremely advantageous in terms of illegal profit accumulation and so
harmful and immoral it must be regarded by the entire world community as
a socially dangerous phenomenon. Some countries qualify its certain
manifestations as a heinous crime.
Throughout this century international organizations have been paying
much attention to actions against drug abuse. For example, in 1909 the
Shanghai Opium Commission approved documents to restrict drug
trafficking between countries. The international opium conference held
in the Hague between 1911 and 1912 worked out, for the first time in
history, the drug convention of 1912. The conference on opium held in
Geneva between 1924 and 1925 approved, on February 11, 1925, an
Agreement under which opium was made a government monopoly. The second
Geneva conference on opium passed a convention on February 19, 1925,
under which narcotics were to be produced only for the purpose of
meeting the countries’ legal demand for them. Besides this convention
stipulated the extension of the list of drugs. On July 13, 1931, an
international convention limiting the production of drugs and regulating
their distribution was approved in Geneva. It came into force in 1933. A
convention of actions against the illegal trade in hard drugs was signed
in Geneva on June 26, 1936. It made international prosecution for
drug-related crimes possible and introduced punishments for such crimes
compared with the previous conventions.
In 1946, the UN Economic and Social Council passed a resolution that
provided for the international drug control and for the establishment of
a drug commission for this purpose. On November, 19 1946, the UN General
Assembly passed resolution 54/1 which endorsed a Protocol on Drugs. It
was signed at Lake Success on December 11, 1946. At the initiative of
the Drug Commission, a protocol extending the international control over
drugs set forth by the 1931 convention, was signed at the third UN
General Assembly session in Paris on November 19, 1948. A Protocol on
Control over opium poppy, consisting of the Preamble and the Final Act,
was signed in New York at the UN opium conference on June 23, 1953. The
UN conference in New York in 1961 approved a Uniform Drug Convention and
in 1971 in Vienna a special diplomatic conference passed a convention
that stipulated the establishment of a control over psychotropic
preparations. The UN conference in Vienna in 1988 adopted a convention
of actions against the illegal trafficking of drugs and psychotropic
substances. In keeping with the decisions of the G Seven heads of state
and governments and of the European Commission Chairman, the 15th
top-level economic summit in Paris set up a special group in July 1989
to deal with the laundering of drug money. Upon this group’s
recommendations, the International Drug Control Council called on all
the governments to approve, among other things, legislative acts against
attempts to launder money obtained from drug sales and to ensure their
effective use. The list of international antidrug conferences and their
drug-prevention documents alone, as well as the establishment of special
international bodies and organizations to carry out their decisions, is
a graphic illustration of how serious the world community’s effort to
oppose drug abuse has been.
A lot of people today are drawn into the process of illegal drug
trafficking: from those engaged in cultivating drugs or producing
medical preparations containing drugs, to drug salesmen and dealers
engaged in money-laundering. At times these people form groups, which
are termed, organized criminal groups or associations by the criminal
code. On the one hand, these groups take control of drug-related crimes
and draw people who commit such crimes on their own. And on the other
hand, they establish firm organizational ties among themselves forming
drug cartels in order to monopolize drug trafficking in the vast regions
of the world. This shows that there is a continuous blending process
between narcotics and organized crime. These and other factors reviewed
in this book characterize the highest degree of danger that narcotics
represent. They prove the pressing need to increase worldwide action
against narcotics. This action calls for the use of all possible means:
political, legal, economic, and medical among others.
The antidrug campaign is a big drain on the material resources of the
country. It involves large spending on various programs such as
preventive Medicare, law-enforcement, legal and economic measures, and
other. If this spending is to be rational and effective, a range of
measures should be outlined with the utmost precision and professionally
implemented.
All this calls for a comprehensive analysis of the existing situation
and of the possible opposition by drug dealers. As the owners of
enormous wealth, which sometimes exceeds the budgets of some countries,
drug dealers are able to influence government policies, especially in
small countries. Mainly bribing top government officials in the
legislative or the executive branches ensures this influence. As a
result, criminals get a chance to interfere in law making from the
outset. The bribery of the law enforcement officers and of the officers
of the court, among others, makes it possible to cover up drug deals,
prevent exposed members of the criminal associations involved in these
deals from prosecution or substantially curtail their prison terms.
Unlike the United States and other wealthy countries, smaller nations
are in no position to allocate sufficient sums from their budgets to
carry out effective antidrug projects. Research-based guidance may to a
certain extent make up for the lack of necessary funding. And here
government-supported antidrug programs may play an essential role.
The study of drug abuse has always been prominent in the study of law.
Many booklets, articles, serious textbooks, and monographs are devoted
to narcotics. It is as hard to cover all aspects of the problem, even in
the most profound study, as it is to establish absolute truth,
especially, since reality keeps creating new problems all the time.
The key solution lies in the need to pool international efforts in
eradicating drug addiction and narco-business. In the present-day world
with its integration processes it is impossible to do away with drug
addiction in any one country. Yet there is no way for the world
community to regard itself free from the problem even at a time when
drugs will be a peril only in one particular country. An intensive and
continuous buildup of the world community’s joint effort against
narcotics is a top priority objective of the world at large.
Chapter 1. Concept, Manifestations and Tendencies of Drug Abuse
1. The Concept and Manifestation of Drug Abuse
Sociologists, lawyers and medical experts single out three basic aspects
of drug abuse: social, legal and medical.
These aspects are interconnected and interdependent and reveal the
diverse nature of drug abuse. Moreover one can also point out the
criminological, economic and ecological aspects.
To highlight the entire multiplicity of this phenomenon, it is necessary
to go beyond the widespread notion of “drug addiction” because strictly
speaking it applies only to the medical or biological aspects of drug
use being viewed exclusively as a disease without covering social, legal
and some other aspects. This is why the notion “drug abuse” rather than
“drug addiction” is used in juridical literature as a much wider term
covering social, legal and other aspects. So, drug abuse is understood
as a “social phenomenon” which combines such illegal actions as willful
consumption of narcotics, dealing in narcotics illegally, as well as
solicitation to use drugs, creating the conditions for becoming a part
of illegal drug trafficking.
This definition is acceptable on the whole and may be used as a basis
for describing the phenomenon, yet it fails to cover the biological
aspect and insufficiently expresses the economic, legal and
criminological aspects.
There is a need for a term that would cover all the aspects of this
negative phenomenon, and of the ways of combating it.
Social Aspects of Drug Abuse:
Most concisely, the social aspect of drug abuse can be described as a
combination of social behaviors linked to narcotics and their social
consequences in the form of damage that has been done and can be done to
society.
The actual negative social manifestations of drug abuse are expressed in
various drug-related actions: cultivation of drug bearing plants,
preparation, acquisition, storage, sale and consumption of narcotics, as
well as persuasion to use narcotics.
Negative Social Consequences of Drug Abuse:
The negative social consequences of drug abuse are similar to the social
consequences of crime. They amount to “real harm caused by crime to
social relationships and expressed in the cause-and-effect combination
of criminal behavior and in the direct and indirect, immediate and
mediate negative changes (damage, losses, and other ill effects),
ultimately affecting the social (economic, moral, legal, etc.) Values
and also implying the combination of society’s economic and other social
hazards attributed to the effort to combat and to socially prevent
crime.
Proceeding from this definition it is possible to recognize the negative
social consequences of drug abuse. The first is the negative social
changes, such as harm to people’s health, the destruction of family
foundations, and a decline in work efficiency. The second is the cost
which society has to pay to overcome these changes. Other changes also
include refusal to work, various antisocial actions, and crime. A closer
look at these negative changes shows that drug addicts are poor workers
because of their ill health, which, in general, makes work impossible
for them during spells of abstinence. Their entire range of interests
and thoughts lies in the desire to find ways of obtaining drugs. The
list of negative changes also includes material damage perpetrated by
the drug addicts who are often the source of transportation accidents
and accidents in industry. For example, 60 billion dollars worth of
damage is done annually in the United States alone. There is also the
moral damage resulting from the various unlawful actions motivated by
the desire to find means for buying drugs, such as the willingness to
commit crime for the sake of meeting that desire. Forgery, embezzlement,
abuse of authority and office duties is just a few. Drug addicts create
unbearable conditions for their families by denying them normal
lifestyles and means of existence. They harm their offspring by
upsetting the hereditary stock. Drug addicts undergo physical and moral
degradation and die early. They destroy their own basic moral and
ethical values.
The Committee of Experts of the World Health Organization determines the
social danger and negative consequences of drug abuse according to the
basic factors and divides them into two main groups: the breach of
relations among drug consumers and the spread of unfavorable
consequences among many people.
Specific Social Problems of Drug Abuse:
WHO experts describe the specific social problems caused by drug abuse
as follows: the huge material losses and their consequences in the form
of all kinds of damage done to those who immediately surround drug
consumers (parents, college roommates and so on) and to the society as a
whole; the deterioration of relations with official organizations and
institutions, staff at college and at work etc.; drug consumers’
inclination to commit crimes motivated by the need to have drugs or the
means to buy them, and also the mercenary and violent crimes committed
under the influence of drugs; the additional demand for welfare benefits
and medical care for persons using drugs other than for medicinal
purposes and in connection with this the unnoticed spending both by drug
addicts and by society as a whole; the danger arising from drug addicts
as potential conduct of drug addiction in their immediate surroundings.
Detailed research however allows for a broader list of specific social
aspects. They include: ideological and cultural, law enforcement,
medical care and preventative medicine, labor and education, family and
leisure time, and material resources. The specific ill effects of
narcotics and their unfavorable social consequences can be seen in any
of the categories listed above. For example, in the ideological and
cultural area they express themselves in the development of a specific
drug ideology; in the law enforcement area there is an increase of
crime. In Medicare and preventive medicine, there is deterioration in
people’s health and an increase in the number of handicapped children.
In industry and education – a decline in labor efficiency and poor
results at schools and other educational centers is evident. One can
also point to accidents and to deterioration of relations among staff.
In the family relations, a loss of understanding occurs. All this
requires setting up special schools, preventive centers, drug
departments at medical institutions, rehabilitation centers and new
antidrug programs.
To sum up the above-cited social aspects of drug abuse one may state,
that it is harmful in physical, moral and proprietary ways. This harm is
caused by the proliferation of the narcotic sub-culture as it draws more
victims into it; secondly, by drug-related crimes; thirdly, by crimes
committed for the purpose of getting means for buying more drugs;
fourthly, by crimes committed under the influence of drugs; and,
finally, by the spending needed to carry out various programs aimed at
eliminating drug abuse.
Legal Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The legal aspect of drug abuse is also a part of the social aspect.
Crimes and other law-breaking acts covered by the totality of legal
norms involve the illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants, the
preparation, storage, transportation, trafficking, sales, and theft of
drugs, the use of drugs without doctor’s prescription, and the violation
of laws regulating the handling of narcotics. This also covers the
situation when suitable conditions are created for taking drugs and
those in which more people are persuaded to use drugs or when people
have to commit crimes in order to obtain means to buy drugs. Crimes
committed under the influence of drugs, as well as crimes that are
committed for the purpose of getting money to purchase drugs are
included as well.
These crimes should be viewed as part of the notion of drug abuse since
they are caused by the desires of drug users to boost drug-inspired
activities or their level of intoxication. The legal aspect of drug
abuse also includes those relationships regulated by law and arising
from the non-medical use of drugs.
Criminological Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The criminological aspect of drug abuse includes a part of this
phenomenon that poses an extreme danger to the public, i.e. is linked to
the above-cited crimes, their state, level, structure, dynamics,
cause-and-effect, criminal’s personality, and prevention measures, among
others.
Economic Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The economic aspect of drug abuse is associated with its affect on
economy, such as large sums of money in possession of drug dealers, a
decline in labor productivity of drug addicts; an increase in spending
on law-enforcement engaged in combating drug-related crimes; and a drain
on national budgets due to preventive and rehabilitation measures to
combat drug addiction. Experts claim, for example, that in the former
USSR, the cost of illegal drug trafficking within the
“narco-business-shadow economy” amounted to billions of troubles.
Biological Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The biological aspect of drug abuse is associated with the notion that
it is “a disease manifested by a constant and insurmountable craving for
drugs (morphine, for example) causing euphoria in small doses and stupor
in large ones. The regular use of drugs arouses a desire to increase the
dose. The abstinence syndrome usually accompanies withdrawal.
Narcotics damage the internal organs of drug takers, destroy their
nervous systems, their state of mind, and bring about their social
degradation.
Since drug addiction is a disease, there is a need to find a cure for
it. Hence, the need to have qualified medical personnel, special drug
rehabilitation centers and branches offices, effective medicines and
curative methods.
Ecological Aspect of Drug Abuse:
The ecological aspect of narcotics is associated, on the one hand, with
the natural existence of drug-bearing plants, and on the other, with
their man-made cultivation. These plants are a source of obtaining and
preparing narcotic substances. From the ecological point of view there
is a need, first, to do away with the spread of wild drug-bearing
plants, and second, to ban their man-made cultivation. The economic,
biological and ecological aspects are subjects for research by experts.
Drug-related Crimes:
It is possible to define drug abuse as a negative social phenomenon
touching upon the social, legal, criminological, economic, biological
and ecological areas accordingly. One part of the phenomenon is drug
addiction, as a disease, and other, embraces all the law-breaking
actions related to drugs: those carried out to secure means for
purchasing drugs or those committed under the influence of drugs. Such
law-breaking actions cover the use, preparation, purchase, storage,
transportation, parcel mail, sale and theft of narcotic substances;
attempts to force other people to use drugs and the creation of
conditions conducive to such use; attempts to sow and grow drug-bearing
plants; attempts to violate the established rules regulating the
production, purchase, storage, control, sale, transportation or parcel
mail of narcotic substances; and, drug smuggling. The law-breaking
actions also cover various mercenary crimes (violent crime) that are not
drug-related but are committed in order to buy drugs subsequently
(theft, robbery, plunder, fraud, blackmail and others) and also violent
crimes committed under the influence of drugs (e.g., hooliganism against
individuals). This notion reflects the essence and the confines of the
drug use and serves as a guideline for determining its scale and
developing strategies against it. Yet the true scale of this phenomenon
is obscured by a high degree of latent drug-induced diseases and
law-breaking drug-related actions.
PRIVATE Narcotics and Crime
The above-listed law-breaking actions are crimes proving an
interrelation between drug abuse and crime. Drugs and crime are not only
closely interrelated, but actually blend fully, and in fact, becomes
what is known, as narco-crime. But to merely establish this fact is not
enough. The danger drug-related crimes pose to the public surpasses the
danger coming from other crimes. Drug-related crime is largely
interrelated with various other kinds of crime and even merges with one
of its most dangerous varieties such as organized crime. This becomes
clear studying the dynamics of drug-related crimes. Central here are the
drug users who represent a consumer of narcotics, and the ultimate
target of drug trafficking – the sale of drugs. When people become
dependent on drugs they concentrate all their efforts on getting drugs
at any cost. They engage in criminal activities ranging from the
cultivation of drug-bearing plants and the preparation of “stuff”, to
its sale.
PRIVATE Tendencies of Development
The number of drug users grows in direct proportion to the rise in
crimes committed under the influence of narcotics and, in the long run,
to the profits earned by the drug dealers. Hence, drug dealers seek to
1) expand the drug sales; 2) increase the output of drugs or receive
more of them from medical and pharmaceutical centers; and, 3) further
promote criminal activities connected to drugs. The latter seems to
ensure the realization of the former. A high degree of organization
paves the way for expanding drug sales, increasing the output and
boosting drug trafficking.
PRIVATE Expanding Drug Sales
The expansion of drug sales is achieved by persuading more people to
take drugs. Drug dealers set up drug pads and stores where narcotics are
available. They try to advertise them in indirect ways. They make sure
that more powerful drugs are continuously being developed.
In order to increase drug output drug-bearing plants are grown on remote
plantations in regions with difficult access. Illegal shops and
laboratories for developing new types of narcotics are set up there.
Funds for increasing drug output are raised by blackmailing or bribing
public officials. Drug-dealers practice violence, make threats against
officials and encourage theft of large amounts of drugs.
Boosting the Level of Organization of the Illegal Drug Trafficking
Business Methods to improve the level of organization include mergers of
criminal groups and associations, severe disciplinary measures within
criminal organizations, greater degree of cohesion among group members,
conspiratorial rules, and tougher actions against those who violate the
rules in such groups. Other methods are: increasing attempts to draw
government officials into criminal groups, taking control of persons
engaged in drug-related crimes on their own, centralizing finances and
monopolizing drug prices.
According to various studies there are quite a few syndicates and
cartels in the world that have divided drug trafficking regions among
themselves. Activities of these groups are guided by a clear-cut system
of criminal actions, such as promoting the sowing and cultivation of
drug-bearing plants, the production of narcotics, their wholesale
purchase, and the transportation and sales of drugs to consumers. Drug
syndicates and cartels, for whom drug trafficking is the main source of
income, act under the guise of legitimate companies, trying to come
across as legal as possible. They have airplanes, modern weapons and the
newest technology in their possession. Leaders of the criminal drug
associations do their utmost to oppose the actions of law enforcement
agencies. With this purpose in mind, they not only try to check police
actions but make attempts, successful at times, to infiltrate police
ranks. Professional criminals deploy defense measures that may prove to
be so effective in challenging the worthiness of surveillance of
suspects and the bugging of their phones. United into cartels and
syndicates and organizationally divided into groups and associations,
drug- criminals are usually aware that they remain under constant
surveillance. To ensure their personal safety they resort, as a rule, to
various counter-surveillance measures, thus putting well-trained police
officers in a difficult position. Experience shows that criminal groups
usually keep the approaches to places where narcotics are turned over
under their own close watch.
PRIVATE Ways to Legalize Drug Profits
Drug dealers seek not only to build up profits from drug trafficking but
to legalize them as well. To that end they engage in criminal activities
where by legal and illegal operations are inextricably intertwined. The
money earned from the trade in narcotics is invested into legitimate
businesses or in real estate. It may also be laundered in financial
transactions, such as, the purchase of shares and securities or other
newly invented and constantly perfected operations. The income thus
obtained allows drug dealers not only to pour more money into drug
trafficking or finance more drug-related crimes but also provides for a
legal coverage of drug trade, or for the participation in legal
activities. Speakers at the international seminar on combating organized
crime in the Russian city of Suzdal in 1992 held in accord with the
resolution of the 45th session of the UN General Assembly, pointed out
that “in the majority of countries, organized crime developed along two
directions: participating in prohibited activities (property crimes,
money laundering, illegal drug trafficking, violation of hard currency
transaction rules, intimidation, prostitution, gambling, trade in
weapons and antiques) and joining legal business (directly or using such
parasitical means as extortion. This participation in legal economic
activities is always bent for the use of illegal competition methods and
may have a greater economic impact compared to the involvement in
totally illegal kinds of activity). In short, criminal methods are used
in both cases leading to the situation in which criminal elements form
the majority of organized criminal formations.
PRIVATE Organized Narco-crime
Typically, drug cartels and syndicates are highly organized. Present in
the organizations are: strict and precise distribution of functions;
very rigid hierarchies; internal discipline maintained by interest,
authority and force; stringent conspiracy; ramified networks of groups
bound by firm organizational ties; branches existing and functioning in
various countries; contacts with other criminal groups (counterfeiters,
smugglers, murderers etc.); the use of professional criminals; the
internationalization of group members; and, the use of violence to meet
the desired ends. To protect their huge profits and spheres of interest,
the subjects of narco-criminals stop at nothing and employ violent
means, such as the contract murders of their rivals and of law
enforcement agents. The money brought by the trade in drugs is often
used to finance dangerous crimes and acts of terrorism. It becomes a
source, which finances subversive activities of all kinds. Profits
obtained from the drug trade make it possible to finance large-scale
armed operations against government forces (like in Columbia or Mexico).
Profit gained from the drug trade is often compared with the profits
earned by whole industries. The drug trade is regarded as the world’s
second largest economy. All this enables drug dealers not only to pay
generously for the participation in crimes but also to set up a common
financial fund, a common bank, so to speak. Narco-money is also used to
exert influence on policy-making, particularly, by nominating the
associates of drug dealers to key posts in the economy and politics or
by bribing persons who already hold such posts and turning them into
supporters of the drugs trade. These financial investments are
reinforced by threats of violence against them or their close relatives
(wives, children or parents). This proves convincingly that narco-crime
is a well organized and well planned business incorporating the mutually
inter-related criminal activities of individuals, groups, associations,
syndicates and cartels with a division of mutually interrelated
functions. This is the reason to regard this kind of crime as a variety
of organized crime. Some researchers believe that drug profits are the
economic foundation of organized crime. This can be seen in comparison
of elements forming narco- and organized crimes. To get a clear
understanding of the elements of the latter it is necessary to look in
retrospect at the history of organized crime. While crime and drug
addiction have been known to the world for at least several centuries,
the existence of organized crime has been officially recognized quite
recently, only in this century. Yet both national and foreign
researchers date the origin of this phenomenon, in one way or another,
to a much earlier period.
Various stable criminal organizations used to appear and operate on
territories of almost all modern states. Gangs of brigands and smugglers
were at work not only on land but also at sea (sea pirates). They had in
their possession caches of weapons, stocks of gold and food and,
sometimes, entire fleets of pirate boats furnished with everything
necessary for an attack and ready to go into combat with regular troops
or ships. They thereby challenged borders and laws. Already at that time
members of such gangs observed their own internal rules and traditions
strictly, contrary to the ones obligatory in society. Among them there
was the principle of mutual help, the recognition of the leaders’
authority, the distribution of duties and spoils, as well as a system of
reward and punishment. Gangsters knew exactly the kind of work they were
responsible for and also knew their zones of influence (slave trade,
cattle stealing, smuggling arms, narcotics, gold, diamonds, etc). They
talked their own language and stuck to other conspiratorial rules.
Taking hostages and bribing officials were their usual practices, very
much like the actions of the present day organized crime groups.
With the passing of time, of course, these organizations kept
transforming and modernizing, adjusting to changes of state borders,
governments and economies. They were turning more and more into
organized criminal associations that posed a serious threat to public
safety, to the supremacy of the law and to other state institutions. As
researchers point out, a particular danger of organized crime is that it
becomes more and more arrogant, aggressive, ingenious and diverse. In
the 1980s, organized crime became increasingly apparent throughout the
world.
PRIVATE Forms of Organized Crime
Along with traditional forms of organized crime, new forms, more diverse
and greater in scale, have appeared, such as the theft and re-sale of
luxury cars, electronic equipment, historical and cultural art objects,
antiques, icons and church plate. Other forms include the illegal trade
in human being, weapons and ammunition, strategic raw materials,
non-ferrous and rare metals, drugs counterfeiting, theft and forgery of
credit cards, gambling, and infiltration of legal business and world
finance. An analysis of documents issued by the UN Information Center
proves that the influence of various forms of organized crime spreads
far beyond national borders and “transnationalize crime”, so to speak.
This creates a situation which “differs, both qualitatively and
quantitatively, from the situation in the past and hampers the
accomplishment of effective measures aiming to prevent and eliminate
crime. Experts believe that the evolution of organized crime should be
seen as “a process providing for a rational reorganization on the
international basis of criminal enterprises using the same patterns just
as it is the case for legal enterprises.” This process reflects
tendencies for forming a more intricate organizational structure typical
of the modern society in all countries. This explains why the UN
Secretary General pointed out in his speech at the 47th General Assembly
session on September 28, 1992, that it was imperative to promote
international cooperation and develop practical steps against organized
crime in view of its negative impact on various areas of society’s
social, political and economic life. Though extremely topical, problems
of organized crime have not yet been resolved properly by juridical
theory and practice. Suffice it to say that there are still some
countries where no laws on organized crime have yet been passed. There
is no uniform approach to the concept of organized crime at the
legislative level. The attributes and signs of this phenomenon have not
yet been finalized. No attempts have yet been made to develop a
comprehensive program of action against it. There are few statistics or
official data on organized crime as a whole.
For example, in the former USSR the first official mention of organized
crime made at the government level was on December 2, 1989, when the
decision to step up the effort against organized crime was passed by the
2nd Congress of People’s Deputies. However, no laws regarding organized
crime have been adopted. This could not help but leave its imprint on
the practical activities of law enforcement agencies in the former Union
republics. There was no solid theoretical discussion of the concept of
organized crime, as the scarce publications of the last few years could
hardly give a complete picture of this problem.
Some published works, however, contain a number of definitions of
organized crime. Some authors point to the following basic features.
Criminal groups based on hierarchical order consolidate within the
borders of one particular region or a country; their leaders take no
part in crimes but only perform organizational, managerial and
ideological functions. Government officials, including law enforcement
officers, become corrupt and join criminal activities providing safety
to the members of criminal associations. This association has a tendency
to monopolize and expand the spheres of illegal activities, and to
protect leaders from bearing any responsibility. Another group of
authors believe that organized crime is a system of contacts forming
naturally in the criminal surroundings which lead to the concentration
and monopolization of certain kinds of criminal activities. Diversified
ties between groups engaged in criminal activities are characteristic of
this system.
PRIVATE About the Concept of Organized Crime
Organized crime represents the consolidated criminal associations with
their own norms of behavior, hierarchical ladders and finances, it is
the most dangerous kind of crime that opposes and counteracts the lawful
actions of the state. This definition also embraces the totality of
mercenary and economic crimes committed with the help of corrupt
government officials, and law enforcement agents among them, who yielded
to bribery and other forms of corruption.
PRIVATE Organized Crime in Foreign Legislation
In this context it is interesting to look at foreign experience in
dealing with organized crime, particularly, in the field of legislation.
The Italian criminal code states, for example, (article 416-2) that “the
association of a mafia kind is ranked as a criminal one when its members
practice the removal and intimidation of other persons in order to
ensure a cover-up and observe the law of silence and thus make it
possible to commit crimes, and win, directly or indirectly, posts
allowing the management or control of business activities, the
distribution of concessions and permits of all kinds, the signing of
contracts, and communal services, as well as making illegal profits or
securing illegal privileges for themselves and other persons.” The
American approach seems to be slightly different. While the Italian
Criminal Code lists features of organized crime, American Federal
Legislation (USC-par. 3781), though naming certain features of organized
crime, attributes concrete actions to it, namely, “unlawful activities
by members of a well-organized and disciplined association supplying
illegal commodities and offering illegal services, which include but are
not limited to, gambling, prostitution, usury, the spread of narcotics,
racket and other unlawful actions by such organizations.” Organized
crime has broad opportunities for carrying out unlawful deeds but the
choice of these opportunities is mainly determined by the level of
expected profit, the minimum degree of possible risk of being caught and
exposed and the absence of concrete victims. It is this particular
factor that comes to the foreground in crimes related to narcotics whose
users are not interested in reporting to the police. The specific choice
of a “specialization” for this or another criminal group is a factor
guaranteeing it, to a large degree, a high level of conspiracy and a
free hand in committing crimes. Along with the previously mentioned
“specialization” of criminal associations there also exists what is
termed as an “internal specialization”, i.e. the division of labor among
criminal association members.
PRIVATE Organized Crime and Drug Related Crime: Features in Common
These features include:
– clearly defined organizational and managerial structures with a
hierarchy which ensures the protection of leaders from punishment since
their actions usually remain outside the confines of the criminal code;
– uniform norms of behavior and responsibility;
– planned unlawful activities and common goals aimed at making large
profits;
– a system aiming to neutralize all forms of legal control and
development of counter measures;
– common finances invested in various areas of criminal activities,
which are used for bribing the necessary people, providing material
support to members of criminal associations and financing crimes;
– monopolization and expansion of areas of criminal activity,
cooperation between criminal associations in various branches of a
national economy, the introduction of commodities and services to the
black market, exploitation of women through pornography, and
prostitution;
– the use of legal methods to launder drug money.
In sum narcotics are a negative social phenomenon posing an extreme
danger to society. This danger is expressed in such ill-effects as the
destruction of people’s health as a result of drug addiction,
drug-related crimes, the totality of which forms an independent crime
branch (narco-crime), and the ability to turn the most dangerous and
well-organized part of narco-crime into a variety of organized crime.
Par. 2. Tendencies of Development
Some tendencies of development can be traced by using the statistical
method, whereas others, which are not clearly evident, can be discovered
by sociological studies, expert evaluations, interviews, studies of
documents or by content analysis of mass media publications.
PRIVATE The Structure of Narco-crime
In the structure of narco-crime, the predominant criminal actions are
the illegal preparation, acquisition, storage, transportation and
dissemination of narcotics by mail. The percentage of such crimes is
high and is increasing all the time. It varies between 87 and 96%.
Actions not with the intent to sell constitute an overwhelming share
(from 96 to 99%).
On the one hand, this fact gives reason to assume that the actions
listed above were taken to obtain narcotics for personal use. On the
other, a conclusion can be drawn that the main efforts against the
spread of illegal drug trafficking “have actually shifted towards
intensifying repressive measures against drug users.
However, illegal activity with drugs and their deliberate sale is much
more intensive. But for various reasons, both objective and subjective,
these fall under a different legal assessment. A major factor is that it
is difficult to prove that there was an intent to sell. This is
compounded by subjective views of “intent to sell” in special situations
and the absence of a clear-cut stand by the lawmakers. 93% of the polled
narcotic officers believe that proving “intent to sell” is difficult
especially since this question is of decisive importance in final
judicial rulings.
Besides, 63% of the respondents charged with illegal drug operations
without the aim of selling drugs, admitted that they not only had such
intent but also had been engaged in these operations on a regular basis
all the way up until they were arrested.
It is interesting to note that in police seizures, drugs obtained from
natural plants have prevailed so far. (Nearly 9/10ths). Today the amount
of seized raw materials for making drugs is estimated in tens of tons
and has grown more than 5 times in the last few years. This is well
above even the over-estimated needs and norms of known addicts.
Specialized studies on the subject underline how difficult it is to
investigate and uncover the above-mentioned crimes because of “the
ingenuity of methods used to carry them out, attempts to conceal them
and also because criminal behavior is multifaceted.
One should also take into account the absence of well-conceived methods,
and the shortage of professionally trained personnel to uncover and
investigate such crimes, especially, in the present-day conditions when
there are political collisions caused by the Soviet Union’s
disintegration, when there are “transparent” and ill-defined borders
between the former sovereign Soviet republics, when the internal affairs
agencies are not well equipped technically, and when the customs and
border control services are vulnerable.
PRIVATE The Structure of Crime and Latency
Among the registered crimes there are none related to violations within
the system of medical care of the rules of drug-making, drug
acquisition, storage, keeping stock of, dispensing, transporting or
sending by mail, at pharmaceutical factories or medical and bio
industrial enterprises, etc. The absence of information about
drug-related crimes, however, does not mean at all that there are no
crimes present.
A study of the problem has shown that there is no reason to believe
narcotics are safely kept out of reach of addicts. This has been
confirmed by more than one-third of the polled officers of internal
affairs agencies. Every second drug taker who was forced to undergo
treatment, did not deny that he had received drugs from medical
personnel. Similar cases of drug acquisition were noted by over 10% of
persons charged with drug-related crimes, whereas 17% of people from the
same group of drug abusers confessed that they used to steal drugs from
hospitals, small medical centers and pharmacies. The share of other
crimes in the structure of drug-related crimes total is insignificant,
though they play a rather negative role in the spread of narcotics. For
example, during one year, the crime of solicitation to use drugs was
recorded only once or twice and 3 or 8 times the crimes involving the
organization or running dens for addicts or providing premises for that
purpose.
All the same just over 98% of the polled people charged with drug abuse
and intent to sell drugs said they had persuaded 3 to 7 persons to start
using drugs. In more than 70% of such cases, a special effort was made
to invite potential “victims” to homes belonging to different persons.
These people received remuneration for granting premises especially
arranged for this purpose and where conditions were conducive for the
use of narcotics. Practically one out of every 4 persons charged with
drug abuse but without attempting to push drugs, admitted in talking to
officials, that he had persuaded at least 3 or 4 persons to use drugs
treating them to narcotics that he had bought or made for his own use.
What is more, 37% of the examined complaints and statements by citizens
addressed to various agencies, especially, those made directly to the
local police officers have remained unread, though they specifically
mentioned people who had turned their homes into drug pads.
PRIVATE Negative Tendencies
All these facts highlight: 1) an increase of the degree in danger posed
to the public by drug-related crimes; 2) the appearance of new
narcotics, giving way to diversity of drugs; 3) increase in the number
of people involved in the use of narcotics through persuasion; 4) the
rising level of organization of such crimes; 5) the expanding boundaries
of illegal drug trafficking on the world- wide scale; 6) an increase in
the number of illegal labs used to make drugs; 7) the perfection of
methods used for selling drugs and an increase in the establishment of
illegal and semi-legal shops intended for selling drugs; 8) the rising
number of cases of illegal acquisition, including theft of narcotics
from medical institutions; 9) the increase in numbers of corrupt
officials involved in illegal drug trafficking; 10) the greater degree
of masked laundering of money; 12) and a higher degree of latency of
drug-related crimes.
The danger to the public from drug-related crimes is manifested by an
increase of crimes committed for the sake of selling drugs, and, second,
by the total quantity of narcotics in circulation.
The appearance new drug substances and the corresponding rise in variety
of drugs is reflected in the constant growth of the List of Narcotics
(narcotic substances and drug medicines both synthetic and natural)
produced by the UN International Drug Control Committee.
The spreading of the cultivation of drug-bearing plants in places, which
are, difficult to physically access is confirmed by the discovery of
plantations sown with such plants in various regions of the world. These
discoveries have been made with the help of space and aerial
photography.
The fact that the ever-larger number of people use narcotics is
manifested in the rising figure of medical patients using drugs and
recreational drug users. The growing number of drug patients is
registered by statistics and the rise in numbers of recreational drug
users is evident from opinion polls among experts (medics at outpatient
clinics for addicts and law enforcement officers who specialize in
combating drug-related crimes).
The greater degree of organization in drug-related crimes is manifested
by the growth of criminal groups and associations, in the setting up of
syndicates and cartels, in the toughening of discipline within
syndicates and cartels and in the rising cohesion of their members and
the coordination of their actions. Tougher methods of pressure are
exerted on members violating the rules of conduct within groups.
Criminal groups, associations, syndicates, and cartels are also placed
under control along with the people who commit drug related crimes on
their own.
The expanding boundaries of illegal drug trafficking on the
international scale are evident in the fact that drugs are smuggled into
practically all the countries of the world. This smuggling includes
attempts to carry drug consignments through the customs and across
national borders of a number of countries by various means and by
different kinds of transportation. This has been established by
controlling deliveries of narcotics and by polling experts
(law-enforcement and customs officers).
Law-enforcement agencies in various countries discovered the rise in the
number of drug-making labs and new methods of selling and circulating
drugs. Shops that were camouflaged as book or perfume stores have been
seized.
PRIVATE Corruption – as a Way to Protect Drug Dealers
Growing number of corrupt officials, aspiring for higher posts tend to
improve methods to protect persons taking part in illegal drug
trafficking. Polled experts and narcotic squad police officers, admitted
that over the last few years, there was a rise in the number of requests
to them by high ranking officials suggesting that criminal
responsibility be lifted from persons involved in drug deals and against
whom suits had been filed.
Ever more sophisticated methods to legalize the money from drug
trafficking is manifested by laundering such money which makes it
difficult, impossible at times, to trace its primary source. At present
one can speak of the three major methods. First, cash is put into
financial institutions or into retail trade and is immediately converted
into foreign currencies or transferred abroad. Second, there is a
stratification of the money, i.e. increasing the number of transactions
that are often carried out in several countries to obscure the source of
the illegally earned money. And, third, illegal earnings are integrated
into investments in economic operations with the aim of making the money
look legal.
The polled experts, and the narcotic police squad officers explained the
increased latency of drug-related crimes by the following examples.
There is mutual interest in keeping crimes a secret both among
drug-pushers and addicts; none of them have any desire to cooperate with
the law-enforcement agencies. There are special mutually beneficial and
inter-dependent relations between users and suppliers of narcotics. This
kind of relationship requires thorough secrecy due to the fear of
criminal punishment for both users and suppliers. Small wonder that the
addicts taken to hospitals, often in critical conditions, dangerous to
their life and health, do not reveal, as a rule, the source of getting
drugs. And this silence is due not to some sort of moral principles,
honor, duty or solidarity but rather, in most cases, to the fear of
losing the already established drug source or to the fear of being
victimized for revealing the source. Also much is yet to be done to
develop proper legal, personnel, tactical, material and technical
programs that are effective in combating drug trade. There is the
obvious need to find a way to expose latent drug-related crimes. For
without realizing the actual state of affairs with drug-related crimes,
adequate measures of combating them will remain insufficient.
Chapter II. System and Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
Par. 1. System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
Drug abuse is a socially dangerous and complicated phenomenon.
Narco-crime, particularly, should be countered by a rigid system of
measures.
These combine numerous and diversified steps having social, legal,
criminological, economic, ecological, organizational and international
aspects. The word system is understood as “a whole consisting of parts,
a combination; …a great number of elements bearing a relation to each
other, connected with each other, forming a sort of integrity or unity.
The system of measures for overcoming drug abuse is comprised of many
steps bearing relation to each other.
PRIVATE System of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
The diversity of such measures, their relationships and contacts can be
illustrated by law practices, law-making and law enforcement, as well as
by the crime prevention theories both on domestic and international
scales. For example, a comprehensive inter-disciplinary action program
to prevent the spread of drug addiction submitted for discussion at the
international antidrug conference in Vienna in July 1987 contained more
than 400 articles and recommendations to governments and organizations
as to how this negative phenomenon should be overcome.
The UN international program for combating drugs for the years 1994 and
1995, 1995 and 1996 comprises 298 projects featuring various aspects,
directions and measures for checking the spread of drugs. 216 out of
them were carried through in 1994 and 1995 and the implementation of the
remaining 82 projects is underway. The total dollar amount of resources
mobilized for the fulfillment of these projects is estimated at US$
484,397,800. The sum was allocated by the UN International Antidrug
Program’s Fund.
The Concept of the Russian Federation government’s policy on drug
control, endorsed by decision No 5494 of the Supreme Soviet of the
Russian Federation on July 22nd 1993, incorporates quite a few antidrug
measures from those developed by the world community and registered by
international conventions and in other documents. This Concept
emphasizes the measures that have been tested and are successfully
utilized.
Since the system of measures against drug abuse is too complicated the
discussion of its contents is related, firstly, to the general
characterization of its components and, secondly, to the classification
of these measures in their relation to each other.
PRIVATE Basic Aspects of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
The measures against drug abuse have some social, legal, criminological,
medical, biological, political, economic, ecological, organizational and
international aspects. Although these aspects have different spheres of
application, they still remain interrelated. For example, measures for
curing drug addicts have medical, social and legal aspects to them;
measures for combating drug-related crimes have legal, criminological,
social and other aspects; measures for combating money laundering have
legal, social, economic, international and other aspects and so on. So,
each particular aspect can be discussed only in abstract terms. This
approach to the definition and description of aspects makes it possible
to give a full characterization of the system of measures against drug
abuse.
PRIVATE Social Dimension
The social dimension is the cornerstone of all other aspects. All the
antidrug measures are permeated with it. There is a correlation between
the social aspect and each of the other aspects. It is either a general
element in relation to something specific such as medical measures, or
the whole of something, which represents a part such as criminological
measures. It can also be a content when the other represents a form, as
in legal measures. In short, the social aspect can be regarded as a
common for all antidrug measures. Additionally there are legal measures
for making those involved in drug-related crimes answerable for their
actions and for intensifying the customs’ control over the shipment of
drugs across borders.
PRIVATE Legal Dimension
The legal aspect of the measures under consideration can be seen as a
totality of legal norms including international conventions against
drugs and determining the degree of a judicial responsibility for them,
mainly, criminal and administrative; secondly, regulating various legal
relationships arising from drug use, thirdly, ensuring a compulsory
treatment for drug addicts who try to avoid it and, fourthly, referring
to these or other substances as narcotics.
PRIVATE Criminological Dimension
The criminological aspect comprises measures aiming to overcome
narco-crime, as a totality of drug-related crimes. These measures aim to
study, analyze and sum up the structure and dynamics of these crimes and
their latency. In addition, they aim to establish the causal complex of
the given crime and determine the content, nature and direction of
actions aimed at removing or neutralizing the causes conducive to the
commitment of drug-related crimes. Thirdly, they aim to disclose and fix
typical features, traits and qualities of an individual guilty of
committing this or that crime. Lastly, they aim to develop methods for
preventing drug-related crimes.
PRIVATE Medical Dimension
The medical (biological) aspect involves the improvement of narcological
aid and methods for curing drug addicts, the need to increase the level
of professional medical training for those engaged in treating addicts
and persons taking drugs without a doctor’s prescription and the
development of new medicines and medical equipment for treating addicts.
PRIVATE Political Dimension
The political aspect involves combating narco-business, which tries to
undermine the foundations of state power, weaken the entire machinery of
state and diminish the nation’s trust in the government.
Some juridical works make it a point that organized crime opposes legal
actions of top government bodies not only by committing crimes but also
by bending administration officials to the will of criminal associations
so that they could protect criminal activities.
The resistance of narco-business to government lawful actions can result
in attempts to undermine the foundations of state and in the
re-orientation and distortion of any country’s policy. So, central to
the political aspect of measures against narco-business is blocking the
influence of drug dealers on the national policy by barring nomination
of corrupt officials to key posts in the government.
PRIVATE The Economic Dimension
There are two facets- retrospective and perspective of the economic
aspect of measures against drug abuse. The retrospective facet, on the
one hand, involves direct expenses of the state to combat narcotics,
and, on the other, the lost benefits to citizens as a result of the
spread of drug addiction.
Direct expenses include sizeable resources taken out from the state
budget to set up and maintain various medical and educational centers
for handicapped children, including those who inherited health problems
from their parents suffering from drug addiction. In addition this
includes expenses to support internal affairs agencies, customs officers
engaged in combating the proliferation of drugs, production of special
equipment for identifying drugs, as well as production of medicines for
drug users. Finally, the direct expenses are used to promote
international cooperation in joint antidrug actions with the United
Nations Organization, Interpol and other international agencies and
carry out research in the field of medicine, psychiatry, psychology and
law, and to conduct an antidrug education.
The cost to society is revealed in an increase in the number of
physically handicapped and mentally retarded people, victims of
narcotics. In the long run this leads to a curtailment of society’s
physical and intellectual potential as a whole, such as lower standards
in education and labor productivity. This, in turn, causes a reduction
in the amount of material and other benefits produced by society and of
resources for various government-run programs. There is also an increase
in the number of cases of accidents in industry and, as a consequence
the increasing failure to meet the output targets.
It is therefore essential to develop economic levers to oppose
narco-business, including the money laundering. This has been poorly
done so far, as no economic measures for combating narcotics have been
developed and applied in practice. These tasks require an independent
study by economists and lawyers.
PRIVATE The Ecological Dimension
The ecological dimension of measures against drug abuse is linked to the
legal regulation that puts restrictions on the preservation and
dissemination of drug-bearing plants. This amounts to a ban on their
cultivation and destruction of the fields without any damage to the
environment. The cultivation of such plants is expected to be limited to
specially allotted areas where drug-bearing plants can be sown for
medical purposes only.
PRIVATE International Dimention
The international dimention of measures against drug abuse is manifested
in various legislative, and law enforcement measures at the
international level.
In sum, this system of measures covers a totality of numerous, diverse,
complementary and carefully outlined programs that have social, legal,
criminological, medical, economic, ecological, organizational and
international dimensions.
Par. 2. Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
The essence of the system of measures to overcome drug abuse can be
understood by their classification in view of the diversity of these
measures. By establishing their different categories and distributing
them into various groups, this classification would make it possible to
give each measure its own niche, to define its boundaries and its
relationship to other measures. This classification makes it possible to
determine the degree of each measure’s significance and its priority in
terms of its practical implementation.
It is important to group them by contents, form, level, subject of
application, and type. As for legal measures, they should be grouped in
accordance with different branches of law.
PRIVATE The Content of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
The measures to overcome drug abuse carried out by the UN Commission on
Drugs of the UN Economic and Social Council, by the UN International
Committee on Drug Control and by other international agencies can be
grouped into the following categories: analytical, organizational,
training and educational, research, technical, medical, economic,
financial, international law, preventive, monitoring, legislative, and
criminal.
Analytical component is needed in order to be able to make use of a
complex system of collecting and assessing data about drug abuse, to
evaluate the extent of the illegal use of drugs in different countries
worldwide, and to make data available on the seizure of large quantities
of narcotics to interested parties.
Organizational component of measures is aimed at setting up
international agencies to control drugs and to combat drug trade;
assisting countries in developing national policies on such control;
supporting projects, promoting national law enforcement agencies;
defining direction of programs and ensuring the organizational backing
of such programs; estimating the amount of illegal cultivation of
drug-bearing plants in areas difficult and dangerous to access.
Governmental measures should include adoption and fulfillment of
national programs to overcome drug abuse by forming special
law-enforcement, medical and other institutions, as well as special
services and squads to combat drug trade; taking stock of lands used to
cultivate drug-bearing plants; arranging control over the production,
storage, consumption, an shipments of drugs, especially across national
borders, as well as over the actions for pharmaceutical and medical
centers.
The training and educational component includes educating specialists in
law-enforcement agencies, mass media, narcological centers, and social
services.
The research component aims to define and analyze data on drug abuse, to
work out recommendations for overcoming it, to set up and run special
research labs, and to find new ways of ending drug addiction.
The technical component includes identifying drugs, designing equipment
for special labs, developing remote control devices to spot fields of
drug-bearing crops.
The medical component of measures is: to promote a system of
rehabilitative treatment for drug users; to choose appropriate curative
programs; and work on methods to reduce the spread of infectious
diseases among drug users.
The economic component consists chiefly in funding various programs and
projects, combating drug abuse, supporting programs reducing demand for
drugs and their supply, encouraging and supporting populations which had
switched to cultivating farm crops on territories where drug-bearing
plants had been grown previously.
The financial component involves measures against money laundering.
Financial operations by drug moguls aimed at making their earnings legal
are the most vulnerable part for the criminals. In view of this, the
Committee for Banking Rules and Banking Supervision issued a statement
on December 12th, 1988 that calls for preventing criminal uses of the
banking system for laundering cash obtained from drug trafficking. It
requires that the international banking community use extreme discretion
while identifying clients. The statement also calls for more cooperation
with judicial systems and police institutions in halting the
legalization of cash from drug trafficking. Many countries have accepted
that the principles contained in this statement are applicable to the
operation of their own financial systems. In keeping with a decision of
the G Seven countries and of the European Commission Chairman at the
15th economic summit in Paris in July 1989, a special operational group
on financial issues was started. It produced 40 recommendations made
public in February 1990. It also analyzed world financial flows, banking
and financial systems and methods for laundering cash. The group found
some weak spots and undertook a number of other steps. All the
countries, who are members of this group and (in keeping with its
recommendations) some other countries declared that they viewed
participation in laundering cash as a criminal act and started special
services to investigate leads on shady deals reported by subunits of the
financial system. At the recommendation of the special operational group
on finances, the UN International Committee on Drug Control called on
all governments to pass and effectively use appropriate legislative acts
to stop money laundering, to confiscate the property of drug dealers,
and to consider a possibility of lifting the burden of proving the
legitimacy of supposed incomes or of other property subject to
confiscation under par. 7 of Article 5 of the 1988 Convention even if
this may require legal or constitutional amendments.
Among the international law components of measures are those calling for
reciprocal legal support of countries working to combat drug
trafficking. It is essential to make extradition easier, to strengthen
international cooperation against illegal drug trafficking, as well as
to promote the international system of control over medicinal drugs and
psychotropes.
The preventive measures are comprised of destroying illegal plantations
of drug-bearing crops; preventing a transfer of drugs and of their
components from the legal sphere to the illegal one; curbing illegal
drug trafficking; reducing the demand for drugs; preventing the use of
narcotics, particularly, in places of employment, eliminating the
addicts’ pads, illegal labs where narcotics are made and stores which
sell them; promoting social rehabilitation of drug addicts and
encouraging education campaigns against drugs.
The control component of measures envisages supervision over the
following areas: the growing of drug-bearing plants, to rule out a
“leakage” of the legitimately grown plants: illegal sowing and raising;
production of narcotics, their acquisition, storage, stocking and
dispensing; commercial trade turnover in special equipment used for
producing drugs, as well as in raw materials; semi-finished products,
chemicals and narcotic analogies; international parcel post deliveries
as a vehicle for sending narcotics; ships sailing on the high seas and
planes flying in international space; transit through customs’ ports;
approaches to land, sea and air borders; and deliveries of drugs for
treatments at hospitals.
The most important law-making measure is that of bringing national
legislation in line with international conventions on narco-business.
The common criminal measures are those applied in every country, as
criminal responsibility for illegal drug trafficking, sowing and raising
drug-bearing plants as well as for other socially dangerous actions
related to drugs. These measures cover both punishments for the
above-listed crimes and also confiscation of tools and of income earned
from the illegal drug trafficking.
Other measures include improving judiciary and legal systems such as
law-enforcement bodies, courts of law, penitentiary and post
penitentiary programs, customs and education.
PRIVATE Forms of Measures To Overcome Drug Abuse
The classification of measures to overcome drug abuse can be subdivided
into two groups: those having legal form and those that do not, i.e.
those which are regulated and unregulated by the law accordingly.
PRIVATE Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse Regulated by the Law
The legal measures against drug abuse include compulsory educational;
compulsory medical; preventive- repressive; repressive; those ensuring
active participation of citizens in combating crimes, in preventing and
curbing them; as well as procedural and organizational managerial. The
compulsory medical, preventive repressive and repressive measures are
those aimed at suppressing drug abuse and the compulsory educational-at
preventing it.
Organizational managerial measures on the basis of administrative legal
norms, determine in general terms, the status of curative educational
and curative labor centers providing treatments to drug addicts, and the
competence of law-enforcement agencies and of the court regarding the
compulsory placing of drug addicts for treatment. In addition, there are
also measures, containing the following provisions: to build up, on the
national scale, a network of bodies and institutions whose functions
will amount to combating drug-related crimes; to record the number of
addicts and provide treatments to them; to promote departmental
cooperation in the work of combating narcotics; many organizational
managerial measures are specified by international law, registered in
conventions, agreements, treaties and other documents.
PRIVATE Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse Unregulated by the Law
The second group of measures to overcome drug abuse are those which are
not regulated by the law. They are informational, analytical,
organizational, educational, scientific, technological, medical and
preventive, as well as other measures that bear no relation to
compulsion.
It is the group of legal measures, which can be subdivided into law
branches. Such norms, as suggested above, can be found in the civil,
family, labor, administrative, and criminal codes.
PRIVATE The Level of Measures to Combat Drug Abuse
Measures to combat drug abuse can be divided into the following four
levels: international, social, special and individual.
Measures at the international level are applied by various countries
throughout the world. They are particularly binding in the countries,
which have joined international treaties by ratifying them. This
category of measures may include any of the previously listed such as
informational, analytical, research, technical, medical, economical,
financial, preventive, control, and law-making.
Social measures are those used on a national scale and meant to
influence society as a whole. They include preventive, law-making,
criminal and other legal measures, as well as the ones embracing the
entire society such as informational, analytical, organizational,
managerial, medical, economical, and others.
Special measures aim to overcome drug abuse and influence, on the one
hand, certain kinds of harmful activities linked to drugs, and on the
other, restrain persons inclined to carry out such activities or drug
addicts. Measures aimed against certain kinds of activities include, for
example, actions to destroy illegally sown crops or wild drug-bearing
plants, may include measures in regard to specific individuals, attempts
to cure drug addicts; to reveal and record the names of people inclined
to commit drug-related crimes, or persons already convicted for such
crimes; to prevent such people from committing more crimes; and to help
persons from high risk groups avoid situations which may induce drug
use.
Measures in regard to individuals cover steps taken in relation to those
persons who use drugs or those who have committed or tend to commit
crimes or other law-breaking acts involving drugs. They include steps
providing drug addicts with an opportunity to undergo treatment or
making them, if necessary, to undergo treatment, instituting criminal
proceedings or using administrative measures against persons who have
committed crimes, as well as preventing or warding off potentially
socially dangerous actions involving drugs, etc. Medical, preventive,
administrative, legal, criminal, criminal procedural and criminal
executive measures can also be seen as measures in regard to
individuals.
PRIVATE The Subjects of Measures To Overcome Drug Abuse.
The measures to overcome drug abuse can be grouped by institutions
implementing them. There are international agencies and organizations,
medical institutions, law-making bodies, law-enforcement agencies,
executive government branches, specially created agencies, groups and
other organizations.
The Commission on Narcotics of the UN Economic and Social Council and
the UN International Committee on Drug Control are permanently
functioning international agencies. Various conferences and symposia on
actions against drug abuse discussed and worked out conventions,
programs, decisions, projects, and recommendations. These can be
referred to as temporarily operating organizations. Conferences of
member-states, i.e. of their official representatives, have the right to
approve conventions and other normative documents subsequently ranked as
international law acts. After their ratification, legal norms contained
in them become part of national legislation. International bodies
exercise all the above-listed measures to combat drug abuse, except for
criminal measures and a few others.
Medical institutions have the authority to carry out curative and
curative preventive measures.
By their nature, the measures to overcome drug addiction can be divided
into suppressive and preventive.
This classification makes it possible to determine the importance of
each particular group. It can also serve as the basis for building a
system of measures to be used for the preparation and subsequent
development of the national program of action to combat drug addiction.
PRIVATE Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
By evaluating the measures to overcome drug abuse from the study of the
experience, it is possible to single out the following groups of
measures: 1) control preventive; 2) research, training and educational;
3) medical; 4) legal; 5) economic and financial, and 6) organizational.
The control and preventive; research, training and educational; economic
and financial measures are grouped together because they are closely
intertwined. Legal measures in this national program should include law
enforcement and law-making measures and organizational
measures-informational, analytical, and technical measures.
Without referring to the contents once again it would be important, from
the standpoint of their expression and place in this program, to draw
attention to some points concerning certain groups of the proposed
measures.
A method should be defined in this anti-drug program of applying control
measures. It would need to be a legislative regulation of drug movements
from the sowing of drug-bearing plants and their cultivation, to the
consumption of drugs. Presently, conflicting rules regulating the
production, acquisition, storage, stock taking, dispensing,
transportation and the sending of narcotics by parcel post are in force.
These rules were enacted by executive branch agencies rather than by
lawmakers. For example, the rules concerning the production, storage,
stock-taking, and dispensing of drugs were established by the orders
issued by the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of the Medical and
Micro- biological Industry of the former USSR. Transportation rules can
be found in orders issued by the Ministry of the Medical Industry and
coordinated with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the former USSR.
Rules for sending and shipping drugs by rail or any other kind of
transport were determined by normative acts of various agencies. On the
other hand, even if this is the prerogative of law- makers, the rules
are scattered within various and quite numerous normative acts making it
difficult to control violations of these rules by law-enforcement
agencies. So, if a full and effective control over the circulation of
narcotics is to be ensured, uniform rules for handling drugs should be
worked out on the basis of the existing rules and should be made into
law. These rules should envisage the procedures for the sowing, raising,
producing, storing, stock-taking, dispensing and selling of drugs and
for the acquiring, sending by parcel post, and carrying of drugs and
their analogies, as well as raw materials, semi-finished products,
chemicals and special equipment used in making drugs across national
borders.
To implement research, training and educational measures in a national
program it is essential to set up a single research and study center
consisting of facilities capable to perform specific tasks of dealing
with drug addiction. These tasks should be defined in the national
program without overstepping their limits, so as not to squander means
and resources on meeting other goals. For example, the tasks of the
research facility should be to identify drugs, establish new types of
drugs and study the most pressing problems of efforts aimed at stopping
drug addiction. There is a need to establish how money obtained from the
narcotics trade is laundered and determine methods for halting this
process; a need to develop methods for examining controlled deliveries,
documenting them and obtaining evidence which could determine guilt of
the involved parties. The research center could work out methods for
carrying out searches and other actions to uncover illegal drug
operations and actions of those guilty, including sponsors, leaders and
members of organized crime groups. The research center could summarize
international experience in combating drug addiction, including school
and out-of-school psycho preventive education for minors, preventive
measures among population groups considered to be at a risk, and
educational and preventive activity by means of mass media.
Special attention should be paid to law-making measures devoted to
combating drug addiction. It is expedient to include in the national
program provisions regulating legal drug turnover, regulations for the
treatment, and rehabilitation of drug addicts. It is necessary to
develop and pass the law on the responsibility for laundering drug money
ensure and to treatment of drug patients grown drug-bearing plants for
personal use at therapy centers or narcological hospitals, who have
made, bought or kept drugs or have sown without selling them, rather
than making them face criminal responsibility.
Economic and financial measures in the national program should provide
for funding to actually put this program into effect. It should also
ensure the functioning of the law-enforcement agencies engaged in the
anti-drug programs, of narcological institutions and drug control
services, as well as support for persons who use fields where
drug-bearing crops had been cultivated earlier but later destroyed. Also
the program should develop provisions about the application of financial
measures against the laundering of drug money.
When it comes to organizational measures, it would be expedient to
single out purely organizational and also informational, analytical, and
material- technical ones.
It seems that priorities of the program should be to strengthen subunits
of the law enforcement agencies, and of narcological centers,
specializing in programs against drug abuse; to set up drug control
agencies, encourage anti-drug programs by the greatest number of
agencies, organizations, and mass media. The priority is promoting
cooperation between all agencies and organizations engaged in combating
drug abuse; in establishing a research center for studying problems of
combating drug addiction, in training and up-grading the qualifications
of specialists, expected to work in their field; and in setting up a
data bank on drug addiction.
All of the above listed informational, analytical and technical measures
should be included in the national program to combat drug addiction in
the Russian Federation. A special fund needs to be started to support
such projects as building medical institutions, a study center, and the
law enforcement agencies furnished with the most modern equipment.
This system of measures to combat drug abuse examined here with the
ranking of these measures, will make it possible to set specific
deadlines for putting stipulated provisions into practice and will
define the responsibility for their implementation, if this system
becomes a part of the national program. The time frame for the
implementation of this extensive program should be no less than 3 years
with annual reports from all those involved. This will help ensure a
more effective realization of all its provisions.
This system and the classification of measures against drug abuse
indicate how difficult and complicated the job of combating drugs is. It
calls for much effort, constant improvement and a considerable
resources.
Chapter III. Drug Abuse in the International Law
Par. 1. International Fora and Legal Acts on Drugs
Legal measures figure prominently in the system of actions aiming to
combat drugs. It is precisely the legal acts that determine the object,
the subject of narco-crime and influence the shaping of measures of
preventive-educational and curative interference, as well as the range
of drug-related actions, considered dangerous to the public.
Measures against drug abuse rest, first and foremost, on a number of
international law acts ratified by the Supreme Soviet of the former
USSR. These acts have different names: treaty, pact, convention,
agreement, protocol, declaration and so on. From the juridical point of
view, the difference in names is of no principal importance. No
clear-cut criterion for the use of these names has been worked out in
international practice. In each particular case, this question is
resolved by the parties (countries) to negotiations, who agree on the
definition of relations between them in this or another special field.
Actions against drug abuse are regulated by international law because
they involve international relations, as they touch upon the interests
of not one but, sometimes, of many countries. As for narco-crimes, they
encroach upon the international cooperation, violate human rights, and
state interests.
All crimes bearing international nature and coming under the norms of
international criminal law, can be divided into two groups by the degree
of their danger to the public, and the forms of manifestation: crimes of
international character.
International crimes are those posing the biggest threat to the
development of peaceful relations and cooperation between nations
regardless of their social, political and government systems. They
include heinous crimes against peace and security of the mankind, such
as aggression, genocide, biocide, ecocide or apartheid.
PRIVATE Crimes of International Character
Crimes of international character are defined as those covered by the
international law but not belonging to the category of crimes against
peace and security of mankind, rather those infringing upon normal
relations between countries and damaging their peaceful cooperation in
various fields, as well as infringing upon relations between
organizations and citizens. These crimes are much less dangerous and are
hard to compare to crimes against the peace and security of mankind.
They are punishable “in accordance with the norms covered by the
international agreements (conventions), ratified in the proper order, or
by the national criminal codes which conform to these agreements.”
Various areas of inter-state relations are the objects of crimes of
international character. This factor makes it possible to divide these
crimes into four rather relative sub-divisions:
1) Crimes that infringe upon the peaceful cooperation and normal conduct
of international relations (terrorism, hijacking and other crimes);
2) Crimes that damage in a variety of norms international economic,
social and cultural development, such as smuggling, illegal emigration,
counterfeiting and dissemination of narcotics through illegal trade;
3) Crimes that against property, moral values, and rights of
individuals, such as trafficking, piracy, pornography and other crimes
covered by international conventions and agreements;
4) Other crimes of international character, such as crimes committed on
board of aircraft, damage to underwater cables, collision of ships and
the failure to provide help at sea etc.
This classification rules out an identical approach to crimes that are
crimes against humanity, and crimes that are of international character.
This classification allows to examine them in conformity with the set of
laws they infringe upon and in conformity with the extent of harm they
do to international relations. Moreover, this classification largely
helps prevent any broader interpretation of the notion of international
crimes.
The categories – listed above of these are not something permanent, as
these crimes are of the changeable and dynamic nature. The extent of
danger they pose can move them from one category to another. At present
any crimes encroaching upon the vital interests of all nations and
countries can be considered as international crime or crime of
international character.
Virtually all countries recognize the need to combat international
crimes and crimes of international character, including the illegal
dissemination of and trade with narcotics. The binding nature of this
effort stems from the universally recognized principles of international
law, including the international duty of all countries to maintain peace
and promote security of all nations, as well as to hold persons guilty
of committing crimes against the peace and security of mankind and other
crimes of international character accountable for their actions.
All international legal acts against drug abuse can be divided into
general and specific. General acts regulate various types of
international relations, particularly, those formed in connection with
actions against international crimes and crimes of international
character, including the dissemination of and trade with drugs. Specific
acts of international law bear direct relation to actions against drug
abuse and its most dangerous aspect- narco-crime.
PRIVATE General Acts of International Law
General acts of international law lay the legal foundation for
cooperation among nations, in actions against international crimes and
crimes of international character, the dissemination of narcotics among
others. One of these acts is the UN Charter. Its Preamble urges all UN
members to join in a common effort to maintain international peace and
security. The UN Charter stresses the need to use international
machinery for promoting the nations’ economic and social progress and
sets the goal “to practice international cooperation in resolving
international problems of economic, social, cultural and humanitarian
nature and in encouraging and promoting respect for human rights and
basic freedoms for all regardless of race, sex, language and religion”
The UN Charter (part 2 art. 2) also calls on nations to strictly and
unswervingly observe international commitments that they have taken upon
themselves voluntarily and among them, as the Preamble points out, to
the commitments stemming from treaties, agreements and other sources of
international law.
One of the major historically evolved principles of international law
states that international agreements must be observed. Stemming from
this principle is a member nation’s duty to cooperate in combating
crime, international crimes and crimes of international character,
including the dissemination of and trade with narcotics.
These crimes have certain particularities. This has a bearing on the
question of accountability if such crimes are committed. According to
I.I. Karpets, there is a need to single out crimes covered by
conventions or other signed and ratified international agreements,
especially, if national legislation have been brought in accord with
them. The existence of both is a good reason for making those guilty of
committing these crimes to be held accountable. A failure to do so must
be qualified as a violation of both international law and national
legislation.
In case there are no coordinated norms of accountability, the involved
countries should proceed from the general principles that had developed
among nations and resolve questions of cooperation against crime on that
basis. Specifically, they may determine the forms of this cooperation,
its confines, the need to institute criminal proceedings in view of the
committed crimes of international character, etc.
PRIVATE Special Acts of International Law
Special norms of international law dealing with measures to combat drug
abuse have been taking shape gradually. The history of their development
is uneven- from establishing international control over the lawful
distribution and use of drugs to introducing control over illegal drug
trafficking.
It is not accidental that crimes bearing on drug abuse are qualified as
crimes of international character. This can be attributed to a number of
circumstances.
As an age-old phenomenon, drug addiction has spread over large
territories. As it kept crossing national borders, whole areas appeared
that specialized in growing and processing drug-bearing plants,
manufacturing and distributing narcotics. Recently, areas where drug
money can be laundered at a profit have emerged. In short, drug
addiction has become widespread practically on all the continents. Drug
abuse has acquired a transnational nature. At the turn of last century
it had already been clear that drug addiction endangered not only the
lives of individuals and social groups but also the economic advancement
of many countries, as it is bound to inflict considerable damage on
agriculture and trade and undermine whole industries. (chemical,
pharmaceutical or pharmacological).
Measures that various governments tried to employ within their countries
in the hope to “curb” drug addiction, so to speak, and ban, say, in
Turkey or China, the non-medicinal use of drugs, failed to bring any
positive results.
On top of that, programs against drug addiction required additional
financial resources for treatment and social rehabilitation of addicts,
medical personnel, curative medicines, and preventive measures by law
enforcement agencies. Many countries lacked such financial resources.
So, actions against drug abuse began crossing national boundaries. The
awareness of a possible proliferation of drugs raised concern of the
world public opinion and governments of many countries began pressing
for the intensification of the rule of law on the international scene.
Consequently, an objective need arose to work out and put into practice
joint inter-governmental agreements, adopt effective legal norms that
would regulate international cooperation, enable countries to employ
coordinated measures against drugs as a whole and its specific
manifestations and to establish, as a result, both a domestic and
international control over the use of narcotics and their consumption.
The first experiment of international control over narcotics and of
measures against drug addiction at the international level dates back to
the Shanghai Opium Commission held between February 5th and 26th 1909 in
the city of Shanghai.
PRIVATE Shanghai Opium Commission of 1909
This commission consisted of the representatives from 13 countries:
Russia, the USA, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Britain, France, China,
Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal and Siam.
The commission attempted to work out measures that would block the
illegal flow of drugs from the regions of Asia to European countries and
the United States. It also discussed questions related to opium smoking
and to international trade in opium derivatives.
In the long run, however, no constructive measures were produced.
Documents issued by the commission contained no specific bans even on
opium smoking. Members of the commission thought it was sufficient to
only speak about its regulation and gradual restriction.
Nevertheless, the work of the Shanghai opium commission of 1909 played a
significant role. Officially it marked the beginning of actions against
drug addiction at the international level and to the launching of a
system of international control over the spread of drugs. It also mapped
out directions for the future international legislation in resolving
problems reviewed in Shanghai.
A further advancement in combating drugs was made in the Hague at the
International Opium Conference held from December 1st 1911 to January
23d 1912. Representatives of 12 countries took part in it (the same as
in Shanghai excluding Austria-Hungary). The conference prepared and
adopted the first convention on drugs (known as the Hague Convention).
As a follow up to the Shanghai Commission, in terms of ideas, the
conference proclaimed the timeliness of actions against narcotics as a
whole and its specific trends.
PRIVATE The Hague Convention of 1912
The Hague convention of 1912 was the first to define the specific types
of drugs, which were put under international control. They were raw
opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine, cocaine and a few others.
The contracting parties took pledges of both domestic and international
nature upon themselves to adopt national laws establishing control over
the production and distribution of raw opium, and at barring its illegal
imports and exports without permits granted by specially authorized
persons; to take steps towards gradually halting the production,
domestic trade and use of smoke opium and introducing a ban on its
imports and exports; to use narcotic substances (medicinal opium,
morphine and cocaine) only for medicinal and “other reasonable
purposes”; to ensure a legal regulation of the production of morphine,
cocaine, medicinal opium, heroin and their derivatives and also of trade
in these narcotic substances; to adopt appropriate laws (if they are not
adopted yet) or change existing laws concerning the responsibility and
punishment of persons guilty of acts involving the illegal possession of
drugs.
The provision concerning the legal regulation of the production of
morphine and its derivatives and trade in them (cocaine, medicinal opium
and heroin) was an important step. It was an attempt to use preventive
measures such as foreseeing the establishment of international control
over narcotic substances, which could appear in the future without their
prior concrete mentioning in the Convention’s text.
The significant feature about the Convention was that it not only
proclaimed the need for cooperation among countries in establishing
control over the use of narcotics but also outlined what needed to be
accomplished. One of these accomplishments was the duty of countries to
exchange, via the Dutch government, texts of legal acts and statistics
on drugs.
The 1912 Hague Convention, however, failed to bring practical results,
largely because of World War I, which began soon after the passing of
the Convention. It was put into force only with the signing of the
Versailles and other peace treaties which specified that their
ratification was tantamount to the ratification of the 1912 Hague
Convention on drugs.
International documents approved following the Hague Convention just
filled in the gaps and developed its provisions. The need for such
documents was prompted by the continuous expansion of drug addiction,
and of the illegal trade and smuggling of various narcotics. These
documents are kept within the demands of the present problems that had
been approved at the international level. They had defined more
precisely and expanded the range of questions pertaining to the
regulation of the issue on the basis of international law. They also
involved more and more countries concerned about combating narcotics.
The growing threat from narcotics was evident from a series of
international acts on drugs. Apart from that, however, the passing of
these acts marked an important stage in international relations. They
affirmed the principle that international law was bound to help organize
and ensure control over drugs. The case in point was the Agreement
banning the production, domestic trade and use of refined opium. It was
signed on February 11th 1925 at the Geneva Opium conference.
Following the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty and the founding of
the League of Nations this conference was the first to discuss the issue
of narcotics.
Its official program envisaged the development of measures to implement
the decisions of the 1912 Hague Convention to limit and eliminate the
production, domestic trade and use of smoke opium. But according to
juridical literature, the Conference in reality expressed the latent
interests of the colonial powers- the signatories of the above mentioned
Agreement.
PRIVATE The Geneva Conference of 1925 Agreement of February 11th, 1925
The Agreement provided for the establishment of monopoly associations on
the territories and domains controlled by these powers to deal with the
opium turnover, for handing over the production of smoke opium to the
state monopoly, as well as conducting anti-opium propaganda.
The general control over the implementation of the Agreement’s
provisions concerning the trade in opium was placed upon the League of
Nations- an international body set up in accordance with the Versailles
peace treaty.
One of the provisions of this Agreement stipulated the need to study the
state of control over smoke opium in the Far East. This study was
carried out, practically for the first time in world practice, by a
Special Commission appointed by the League of Nations Assembly in 1928.
The results of the study were examined in Bangkok and paved the way for
the signing of the Bangkok Agreement of November 27th 1931, which banned
opium smoking. The Agreement entered into force only in April 1937.
PRIVATE The Bangkok Agreement of 1931
The Bangkok Agreement added some new provisions to the Geneva Agreement
of 11th February 1925. These new provisions made retail trade in opium
possible only by government institutions; established criminal offence
for persons under 21 years of age who visited opium dens; legally
regulated the sale of smoke opium for cash and so on and so forth.
However, prior to the Bangkok Agreement, in view of the deterioration of
the drug situation in the world in the postwar period, the second Geneva
Opium Conference passed an Opium Convention that was signed in Geneva on
19th February 1925 and entered into force in September 1928.
PRIVATE The Opium Convention of 1925
It underlined that there was no way to end drug abuse and drug smuggling
unless the production of those drugs was reduced considerably and a more
stringent control over their international trade was introduced than the
one stipulated by the 1912 Hague convention.
For this end, the 1925 Convention stipulated some legal and
organizational measures against drug abuse both at the international and
domestic levels.
This Convention confirmed the principles of the 1912 Hague Convention
and, what is more, it firmly established that drugs could be produced
only for the legal purposes of states, having defined what these legal
purposes were. Of principal importance was the decision to put several
more kinds of raw materials which drugs could be produced from (coca
leaves, raw cocaine, and cannabis) on the list of the controlled
substances (in addition to the ones named by the 1912 Hague Convention).
Moreover, the Convention was applicable to any substance, which, in
accordance with the conclusion drawn by an authorized body, could cause
the same harmful consequences as the substances listed in the
Convention.
To exercise domestic control over narcotic substances the parties to the
Convention agreed to the following pledges: to pass national laws that
would ensure the control over the production, dissemination and
exportation of raw opium and to systematically revise and toughen those
to the extent that the articles of the Convention would require; to
limit the use, production, importation, sale, distribution, export, and
application of narcotics exclusively to medical and scientific purposes;
to exercise control over the activities of persons who were allowed to
produce, import, export, sell, distribute and use drugs and also to
exercise control over premises where these persons work with drugs or
traded in them; to curtail the number of ports, cities and other
populated centers where the importation and exportation of narcotics
would be permitted and to pass through and adopt domestic legislation
that would envisage punitive measures for the violations of the
Convention’s provisions.
To exercise international control over narcotic substances the
Convention stipulated adoption of the following measures: to introduce a
system of evaluation and estimation of a country’s domestic need in
narcotics for medical, scientific and other purposes in the up-coming
year; to hand in statistics connected with drugs (in a special form and
at definite periods of time); to establish control over international
trade in drugs and to also establish firm rules for the importation and
exportation of drugs (to import and export narcotics only if there is a
special written permission, as outlined by the Convention; to regulate
the order of transit shipments and the storage of drugs at stores of
third countries to prevent their possible leakage from the legal
circulation during their shipments and storage); to establish control
over the compliance with all commitments taken by the countries- parties
to the Convention; to place the exercise of that control on a newly
organized international body called the Permanent Central Committee
(later its official name changed several times, although most of the
time, it was known as “The Permanent Central Committee on Narcotic
Substances”).
The Convention also stressed the need for cooperation between countries
in preventing the use of narcotic substances for purposes other than
designated. It stipulated that the exchange of information about laws
and decisions on the implementation of the proclaimed principles (using
the services of Secretary General) would be a concrete form of this
cooperation.
To put it in a nutshell, the Convention defined the content and forms of
realization of international control over narcotics. It introduced a
system of licensing and recording foreign trade operations of drugs and
obliged the member countries to submit detailed statistics about such
operations.
The convention on the limitation of production and the regulation of the
distribution of narcotic substances signed on July 13th 1931 in Geneva
proved to be another link in the international control system.
PRIVATE The Convention of 1931
That Convention meant to introduce amendments to the two already
existing conventions in force, those of 1912 and of 1925. It contained
the following additions: uniform definition of notions, through the
control over drugs. Alternative versions of such notions as
“production”, “refining”, “processing”, “storage reserves”, “state
storage reserves”, “import-export” and others were removed. For the
first time, a list of medicines containing drugs was established and
production, processing, use, exportation and importation of them would
now be controlled. The system of evaluating and estimating the overall
demand for drugs in all countries regardless of their membership in the
given Convention was perfected. Accountability for the commitments of
member governments was enhanced. A special agency, the Control
Commission, was set up to study data from governments about the quantity
of narcotics and accounts about their receipt and use. In case the
Commission found any deviations or the demand for drugs was too large in
its judgment, the Commission had the right to question the examined
figures and carry out its own calculations. The extradition of criminals
was envisaged (under certain conditions) for committing crimes linked to
drugs. The convention stipulated that member-countries had to have norms
in their national legislation concerning the criminal punishment of
persons who encouraged the illegal spread of the most dangerous forms of
drugs.
The Convention also contained some administrative decisions aimed at
perfecting the domestic control over drugs. It urged member-countries,
in particular, to set up a special body that was to apply the
Convention’s decisions; regulate, supervise and control the trade in
medicines on the Convention’s list; act against toxicomania using all
possible measures for halting its development, and bar, in particular,
the illegal trafficking of toxic substances.
Under the Convention cooperation between member-countries expanded
considerably. Along with the traditional exchange of the texts of legal
acts, an annual report was to be submitted to the Secretary General of
the League of Nations about the Convention’s implementation on the
territories of the member-states. The report was to be compiled in
accordance with the model agreed upon by the Consultative Commission on
the Turnover of Opium and other medicines containing harmful substances.
The contracting parties also pledged to inform each other, through the
office of the League of Nations Secretary General, about all the
important cases of illegal drug trafficking. These reports had to
highlight sources or methods of illegal trafficking, the nature and the
amount of drugs, the time and place of their discovery, smuggling
methods and sanctions and measures in acted by the government.
PRIVATE The Geneva Convention of 1936
The convention against illegal trade in drastic medicines signed on 26th
June 1936 in Geneva became the next important document.
That Convention introduced a number of new essential amendments
corresponding with its title containing the word ‘struggle’, which
opened a prospect for a juridical cooperation in campaigns against drug
abuse. The range of crimes subject to prosecution was outlined and
expanded considerably. Contracting parties pledged to prosecute persons
engaged in the illegal manufacture, storage, shipment, exportation, sale
or purchase of drugs or who organized conspiracies with the aim of
premeditated participation in the illegal drug trade. The Convention
also provided for the extension of reciprocal legal assistance through
the exchange of necessary information to identify and arrest criminals
and extradite them to a foreign country.
World War II pushed the problems of international cooperation and
control of narcotic substances to the background. But right after the
end of the war this problem came to the foreground once again. In view
of this, some international acts were adopted that regulated relations
in the area of narcotics. The following documents seem to be of
interest.
PRIVATE The Protocols of 1946 and of 1948
The Protocol on Drugs signed in Lake Success (New York) on 11th
December, 1946 provided for the introduction of changes into the
agreements, conventions and protocols on drugs signed in the Hague on
23d January 1912; in Geneva – on 11th February 1925, 19th February 1925
and 13th July 1931; in Bangkok – on 27th November 1931 and in Geneva –
on 26th June 1936. The Protocol on Drugs covered issues that arose in
view of the dissolution of the League of Nations and the transferring of
some of its drug control functions to the Organization of United
Nations, the World Health Organization or its Interim Committee, and of
the transferring of duties of the League of Nations Secretary General-
to the UN Secretary General. The Protocol was the first UN document that
introduced necessary re-naming although in reality changed nothing in
the system of control and cooperation that existed hitherto.
The Protocol signed in Paris on 19th November 1948 dealt with the
establishment of international control on medicines that were not put on
the list of the 1931 Convention which limited the production and
regulated the distribution of narcotics (changes to this Protocol were
introduced by the 1946 Lake Success Protocol).
The signatories of this Protocol pledged to inform the UN about any
substance that could possibly be abused and also to spread control onto
synthetic drugs that had appeared by the time of the signing, and had
not been previously listed in earlier international regulations.
Discussion of drug issues at the international level and the adoption of
decisions under international law brought national legislation closer
together, helped define priorities of the anti-narcotics movement, form
an understanding of the danger posed by narcotics and control the lists
of narcotics whose manufacture and use was subject to international
control.
Yet, the existence of such simultaneously operating legal acts and
international bodies failed to ensure sufficient legal regulation and
control of all the issues connected with narcotics. This failure created
certain difficulties for exercising control over drug abuse. The
existing international acts also lagged behind the realities of life.
Many issues remained unresolved. For example, only some narcotic
preparations were controlled whereas the production of raw materials for
the making of synthetic drugs remained uncontrolled. The cultivation and
use of drug-bearing plants and other problems related to narcotics
required a legal regulation. In view of this, two important
international acts were worked out and approved within the United
Nations framework. They were the Uniform Convention on Drugs of 1961
amended later by the 1972 Protocol on Drugs, and the United Nations
Convention of 1988 which provided for action against the illegal
trafficking of narcotics and psychotropic substances.
One need not think however that the provisions of the earlier approved
acts were so out-dated that they required to be radically changed. The
two Conventions left intact therefore many time-tested provisions of the
above-cited documents. At present they form the main legal foundation
for the system helping exercise international cooperation and control
over drugs.
PRIVATE The Uniform Convention of 1961
The 1961 Uniform Convention regulates questions pertaining to the legal
use of drugs. Its adoption was a landmark in the development of
relations based on international law. The Convention is designed to
promote decisive actions against narcotics at the international level
through the building of a system of international cooperation and
control over narcotics. In fact, this one document is a substitute for
all the previously accepted international acts (with the exception of
some points of the 1936 Convention). It diminished the number of
international bodies in charge of the control over narcotics, and
established control over the production of drug-bearing raw materials.
The participants in the Convention expressed the wish to sign a
universally accepted international convention to limit the use of
narcotics to medical and scientific purposes only and to maintain
permanent international cooperation in order to accomplish the
principles and aims of the Convention.
The parties to the Convention pledged to adopt not only necessary
legislative measures, as the case had been here-to fore, but also
administrative measures and to ensure fulfillment of the Convention’s
decisions. They took upon themselves to limit the production,
exportation, importation, distribution, use, storage, and trade in
narcotics and limit their use and storage for medical purposes
exclusively in order to diminish sufferings and pain.
Instead of the previous four international agencies, which controlled
narcotics, the Convention authorized the formation of just two: the
Commission on Drugs under the UN Economic and Social Council and the
newly formed International Committee on Drug Control of the United
Nations Organization.
The Convention endowed these two bodies with broad authority.
PRIVATE The Commission on Drugs of the UN ECOSOC
The Commission examines all issues that bear relation to the aims
proclaimed by the Uniform Convention. Every year it approves and amends
the List of substances, plants and preparations, the use, dissemination,
cultivation and storage of which is under international control. It
introduces corresponding changes and additions to the List and informs
the national governments. The Commission also informs the Committee of
any circumstances that may bear upon execution of its functions.
Finally, it issues recommendations concerning the implementation of the
Convention’s aims and decisions, including the program of research and
the exchange of scientific and technical information.
For example, one of the recommendations calls for the need to provide
countries where the illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants is
practiced with an access to modern reconnaissance technology which makes
it possible to discover and then destroy such fields. This
recommendation also calls for the need to promote the economies of these
countries so that their farmers could earn a living by working at legal
agricultural and other enterprises; to combine steps against the illegal
production and spread of narcotics with the efforts to build a more just
international order, give help to third world countries in boosting
their economies, developing their traditional export industries and
agriculture, and train specialists; to regard programs for preventing
drug addiction and curing drug addicts as top priorities.28
Member countries may also be asked to submit their own recommendations.
These may include annual reports about the Convention’s implementation
on their respective territories, texts of laws and rules passed with the
aim of implementing the Convention’s provisions; names and addresses of
government agencies authorized to give permits for the exportation or
certificates for the importation of narcotics; or any other reports
about cases of illegal trafficking.
PRIVATE The UN Committee on Drug Control
In accordance with the requirements of the 1961 Uniform Convention (with
amendments) the Committee consists of 13 members elected for the term of
5 years. 3 members with medical, pharmaceutical and pharmacological
experience from the list of persons submitted by the WHO and 10
members-from the list of persons submitted by countries belonging to the
UN. Persons recommended as members of the Committee have to meet special
requirements such as competence, non-involvement, impartiality,
trustworthiness and must have an awareness of the situation in the
countries where narcotics are produced, made and consumed.
The Committee performs important functions, which actually form the
essence of the system of international control over the legal use of
narcotics. They are:
– using the system of estimation of the countries’ demand for drugs. The
countries concerned are obliged to submit the following annual
estimations written in special forms to the Committee: the quantity of
drugs used for medical and scientific purpose and for the preparation of
other narcotics, medicines and substances not covered by the given
Convention; the quantity of stored available narcotics as of December
31st of the reported year; the size and the geographical position of the
field used for cultivating opium poppy and the approximate quantity of
opium expected to be obtained from it, and the number of enterprises
producing synthetic drugs and the quantity of such drugs produced at
each enterprise;
– estimating the overall level of drugs produced and imported by any
country or territory throughout one year (quantity of drugs imported
which is above the reported figures cannot be permitted without a
sanction from the Committee);
– introducing a regulated order for endorsing the demand for drugs used
for medical purposes. To ensure a balance between the demand and supply
of opiates used in medicine, the Committee sends information with
estimates of the demand for these preparations to the country producing
these drugs. The country is to agree with these estimates and then
decrease (or increase) their production.
– using the system of statistical reports. The governments submit
statistical reports to the Committee about the production and
preparation of specific drugs, their use and consumption, their
exportation and importation, their detention, their stocks and fields
used to cultivate opium poppy and other data which allows the Committee
to determine if countries are abiding by the Convention’s decisions and
then take appropriate measures to ensure their implementation and the
accomplishment of the control functions.
The Committee collects and analyzes information submitted to it by the
United Nations agencies, individual governments and international
organizations, including Interpol. This information features the
production, manufacture, modification, and consumption of drugs, as well
as international trade in them, supply and confiscation of drugs. The
Committee also points to the shortcomings in the arrangement of control
functions and offers recommendations as to how these shortcomings can be
dealt with. If need be, the Committee has the right to invite
representatives of any country to its meetings.
Upon getting the information that the target set by the Convention is
endangered in any country due to its failure to abide by the
Convention’s decisions, the Committee has the right to ask for an
explanation and also to recommend adjustment measures. If a particular
government fails to provide a satisfactory explanation or to accept the
adjustment measures proposed by the Committee, the problem can be
brought to the attention of the involved parties, of the Council or the
Commission. The involved party may be recommended to stop the
importation or exportation of narcotics to given countries or
territories for a specific period of time until the Committee recognizes
that the situation in that country has become satisfactory.
The Committee is endowed with the right to impose restrictions, under
certain conditions, on the manufacture and import of drugs.
Since a large volume of information is available at the Committee it is
able to prepare reports, publish them and forward them to the Council to
be sent to the parties concerned. In these reports the Committee can
touch upon any issues connected with drugs and inform its readers about
newly passed decisions. For example, in its report of 1989 (Vienna) the
Committee called on the governments of all countries to strictly observe
the Convention’s provisions, to submit statistical accounts about the
available quantities of narcotics and trade in them, among other related
data.
To avoid alternative versions and form a single understanding, the
Uniform Convention establishes identical definitions of special
terminology related to drugs.
PRIVATE Drug-related Terminology as Established by the Uniform
Convention
For example, according to the Convention a “narcotic substance” is any
of the substances included in List I and List II regardless of whether
it is synthetic or natural. Lists I, II, III, and IV are enumerations of
narcotics or drug-bearing preparations and are supplements to the
Convention in which possible changes may be made from time to time in
accordance with the procedures established by the Convention.
Definitions are also given for cannabis and its plant and resin, cocaine
shrub, coca leaves, opium, opium poppy and poppy straw.
Significantly, the international understanding of the word “cultivation”
pertaining to drugs covers only the cultivation of opium poppy, cocaine
brush or the cannabis plant. It should be mentioned at this point that
the 1988 UN Convention defines this term differently. But this will be
discussed below.
The term “illegal trafficking” means the cultivation of or any action
relating to the sale of narcotics in violation of the Convention’s
decisions. The term “importation” and “exportation” mean the physical
shipment of narcotics crossing the boundaries of one country to another
or from one territory to another within one and the same country. The
term “territory” means any part of a country defined as a separate unit
for the purpose of applications of the system of drug importation
certificates and drug exportation permits to it.
The term “manufacture” implies (with the exception of production) all
the processes that pertain to obtaining narcotic substances, including
refining or turning one narcotic into another.
The term “production” means the separation of opium, coca, cannabis
leaves and cannabis resin from the plants, which they are obtained from.
The term “preparation” means a hard or liquid mixture containing a
narcotic substance.
The term “storage stocks” is used in relation to the amount of narcotics
which are available in a particular country or on its territory and
meant to be used for medical or scientific purposes, for exportation or
for the needs of various pharmacists, authorized traders and specialists
or institutions where medical or scientific research is carried out.
Included in this term is also the notion “special storage stocks” which
is used to describe the amount of narcotics available within a country
or a territory of that country and put at the disposal of its government
to be used for special purposes or in case of an emergency.
The Uniform Convention introduces a number of specific restrictions and
bans and a special procedure for the cultivation of drug-bearing plants.
The most important restrictions are those concerning the cultivation of
opium poppy, cocaine shrub or cannabis plant.
Special provisions are envisaged in the first place in relation to
opium. Government-run institutions (one or several) should be set up to
deal with the cultivation of opium poppy and with opium production. They
should have the right to determine areas and sizes of fields, and issue
licenses and permits for land plots where a certain amount of opium
poppy can be grown and a certain amount of opium-produced. These
government-run institutions should be endowed with the exclusive right
to buy opium poppy crops from farmers and to import, export, conclude
wholesale trade deals and maintain storage opium stocks (with the
exception of medicinal opium and preparations from it.)
The responsibilities of persons are outlined who have permits (licenses)
to grow drug-bearing plants, to turn over crops of opium poppy only to
the institution which they had received their permits from. Any
departures from the established procedures are qualified as violations
of the law. The Convention permits narcotics to be made only at
government-run enterprises or in accordance with licenses issued to
persons with necessary qualifications.
The Convention introduces uniform rules for storing narcotics to ensure
that the substances are maintained in proper condition. It envisages the
responsibility of member-states for taking precautionary measures to
prevent the inappropriate use of narcotics or the possibility for them
to become part of illegal trafficking in cases when, for example, they
are kept in airliners’ first aid compartments.
Narcotics can be stored only legally. Their producers are not allowed to
keep them in quantity exceeding the established norms. A compulsory
registration system is established under which the quantity of each
prepared, acquired or used drug should be recorded. Drugs can be stored
for no more than 2 years.
The signatories of the Convention are obliged to take specially
stipulated measures to combat illegal drug trafficking. The Convention
therefore grants the contracting parties the right to control the work
of persons and enterprises engaged, on a legal basis, in the
cultivation, manufacture, storage and use of narcotics and of those
engaged in the drugs’ exportation, importation, distribution and trade.
The participating countries, besides, have the following duties: to take
steps at home towards coordinating preventive and repressive measures
against illegal drug trafficking; to help each other in carrying out
campaigns against illegal drug trafficking; to closely cooperate with
competent international bodies in carrying out coordinated actions for
the purpose of combating narcotics and also to ensure an effective
international cooperation and a quick transfer of legal documents for
launching prosecution.
PRIVATE Punishability of drug-related crimes
The Uniform Convention institutes the punishment for drug-related crimes
and obliges member-countries to take specific actions when crimes that
are recognized as punishable by the Convention are committed
intentionally. Serious crimes should be punished by imprisonment or some
other form of deprivation of freedom. Intentional crimes which are
punishable include: the cultivation and production, manufacture,
extraction, preparation, storage, offer, offer with commercial
intentions, distribution, purchase, sale, delivery on any conditions,
drug-pushing, dispatch, transit re-dispatch, shipping, and importation
and exportation of narcotics. Each of these crimes, if committed in more
than one country, must be considered as a separate crime. Intentional
complicity in any of these crimes, participation in a community with the
aim to commit or attempt to commit a crime, preparatory actions or
financial operations related to the above cited crimes must also be
recognized as punishable actions. Sentences passed by foreign courts for
such crimes must be taken into account when considering recidivism.
The Convention recommends that any extradition treaty should make these
crimes subject to extradition.
Yet while instituting punishment for a long list of drug-related crimes
the Uniform Convention also includes a special decision on treating drug
addicts. It calls on the member-states to create conditions conducive to
providing them with rehabilitation and restoring their ability to work.
If economic opportunities are available in the country, appropriate
conditions should be created providing preventive treatment to drug
addicts.
PRIVATE The UN Convention of 1988
The 1988 Convention regulates questions relating to the illegal
trafficking of drugs and psycho tropes. The aim of this Convention is to
promote cooperation between the contracting parties so as to more
effectively solve various problems involving worldwide illegal drug
trafficking, curtail its size and prevent its grave consequences. The
Convention particularly emphasizes the danger of the proliferation of
illegal drug trafficking and the involvement of children in it. It
points to the need to ensure control of easily accessible substances and
those, which are used to make narcotics illegally.
Special attention is paid to the need to improve international
cooperation to block illegal drug trafficking at sea. The Convention
envisages steps to prevent a certain number of offenses.
The contracting parties are expected to adopt necessary legislative and
organizational steps. The following provisions seem to be the most
interesting.
PRIVATE The Notion of Illegal Drug Trafficking
Firstly, there is a provision, bearing the form of a recommendation, for
member states that national legislation should recognize certain
premeditated actions included by the Convention into the notion of
“illegal trafficking” as common crimes. Actions that violate the 1961
Convention (with amendments) include: production, manufacture,
preparation, offer for sale, distribution, sale, delivery on any terms,
middleman services, shipping, transit shipping, transportation, and
importation or exportation of any narcotic. Other actions which should
be recognized as crimes are the cultivation of specially indicated
narcotic-bearing plants in order to turn out drugs; storing or
purchasing any narcotic for illegal trafficking; making, transporting or
distributing equipment, materials or substances for the purpose of
illegal cultivation, production or manufacture of narcotics;
organization, guidance or financing of any offenses listed above;
conversion or transfer of property obtained from the above mentioned
offenses in order to conceal or cover up an illegal source of property
or in order to help a person who is taking part in committing the listed
offenses to evade responsibility for his actions; concealment or secrecy
of the true nature of the source, whereabouts, arrangement method,
transfer of the rights in relation to property or its belonging if it is
known that this property is gained as a result of the listed offenses;
possession of equipment or materials needed to illegally cultivate,
produce or make any narcotic; public encouragement or incitement of
other persons by any means to commit any of the above-mentioned
offenses; participation or involvement in a criminal collusion in order
to commit the mentioned offenses, as well as accomplice, incitement,
assistance or advice during their commission; and intentional storage,
acquisition or cultivation of any narcotic for personal use in defiance
of the provisions of the 1961 Convention (with amendments).
Secondly, there is a provision concerning matters of responsibility and
punishment of people convicted of dangerous drug-related crimes. This
provision recommends such sanctions as imprisonment or the deprivation
of freedom, as well as additional measures in the form of
rehabilitation, restoration of the ability to work, or social
reintegration with subsequent supervision.
PRIVATE Controlled Deliveries
Thirdly, there is a provision about the use of controlled deliveries at
the international level based on mutual accords. Controlled delivery is
a method under which exportation, transportation or importation of
illegal or suspicious batches of drugs are allowed on the territory of
one or several countries with the knowledge and under the supervision of
competent agencies in order to identify the participants in these
offenses.
Most norms covered by international conventions are part of the laws of
the Russian Federation, and more of these norms may be registered in the
future provided there are suitable conditions.
PRIVATE Measures to Prevent Drug Money Laundering
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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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.
PRIVATE 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
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.
PRIVATE Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse Unregulated by the 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.
PRIVATE 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.
Chapter V. Organized Measures to Counteract Narcotics
Par. 1. General Provisions for Counteracting Narcotics
The multiplicity of drug abuse necessitates a joint combative effort
involving a large number of participants who have a broad spectrum of
powers and who will act simultaneously in different directions,
performing a variety of functions. The joining of anti-narcotism forces
can be achieved through a flexible system of measures against this
deplorable social phenomenon.
PRIVATE Organizing a System of Measures Against Narcotics
The multifaceted nature of drug abuse necessitates forming a single
united front with many participants acting simultaneously in different
directions, performing various functions with a wide spectrum of
measures. This can be achieved by the mobile and flexible system of
measures and means. In terms of overcoming drug abuse, organization is a
system of measures to combat drug abuse and means of their
implementation with regard to the division of the spheres of activity,
responsibilities and hierarchical order.
Based on the social and economic reality, actions against narcotics
should comply with the national and international norms of law and with
the scientifically based principles of management. They should take
account of the new developments in medicine, pharmaceutics, psychology,
psychiatry, pedagogy, sociology, instrument building, and have
substantial legislative, material, informational, and research backing.
They must have clear parameters of time and space and, most importantly,
professionally trained personnel.
At the same time, the anti-narcotics strategy must reflect the irksome
particularities and complicated nature of this phenomenon as it combines
two interrelated sides – that of illness and that of crime. This defines
our approach to drug abuse as a medical, as well as a social problem and
it determines what steps and means must be chosen.
PRIVATE Drug Abuse as an Object of Government Action
Narcotics-related issues, including organizational ones, cannot be
isolated either from the social, economic, political, historical,
legislative, medical, and biological problems or from other social
pathologies that call for counteraction. The definition of drug abuse as
a phenomenon of multiple factors is not therefore accidental.
Therefore, efficient counteraction requires much organization and
precisely targeted moves.
Such a stance justifies the view of drug abuse as an object for state
action.
This approach makes a broad analysis of the wide-ranging problems and
ways to solve them possible. Besides, drug abuse helps to define who the
subject (subjects) of influence are, its (their) condition and
functioning, the influence its (their) structure projects, as well as
choice of goals and function. These properties also define clear goals
and a reasonable choice of means to attain them as well as to ensure an
overall realization.
Observing the fundamental properties of drug abuse, researchers call
upon us to be ready for new and unusual capability of this phenomenon to
adapt to any conditions and manifest itself in new forms in most
undesirable circumstances. On this occasion A. Gabiani writes: “Hardly
had they banished the opium poppy, when the niche was quickly filled by
common poppy. When the entire hemp-growing regions were cut off from
black markets, the pharmaceutics flooded the market. The channels for
natural drugs were blocked, then the far more dangerous chemicals began
spreading.»
The specificity of drug abuse, and its forms and degree of
proliferation, stress the need for a regular re-evaluation of its
rapidly changing state in order to promote the methods of counteraction,
discard the outlived methods, bring all techniques of exerting influence
in line with the legislation and day-to-day reality. Experience proves
that an objective assessment of any process demands for corrections to
be made which take due notice of reality.
A system of measures to combat narcotics presupposes that its elements
are mutually compatible and that the system itself can be a part of a
higher order -(law enforcement and crime-prevention systems, and social
administrative systems, as a whole). This means that not one subject or
measure in the counter-narcotics system may contradict the values
accepted by the society. The authority of the subjects must be
sufficiently reflected in their rights and duties.
It is essential that all elements of the anti-narcotics system have
enough potential possibilities to ensure its effective operation. The
utmost goal of the organization is, in this case, to transform the
potential possibilities into the real functions and make them serve as a
system of counteraction measures. For example, the professional duty of
medical institutions and doctors who provide treatment for drug addicts
is manifested as a certain function performed by the elements of the
system of counteraction to drug abuse.
A solution of the problems of drug abuse requires, on the one hand,
considerable efforts by national, international and other organizations
and their numerous divisions that act in different directions and focus
on different target groups of people, and on the other hand, it requires
coordination and accord in their activities.
The interaction of different elements of the system may be indirect,
through the understanding of common objectives. This, however, requires
a link in management. Such a link “is based on a certain program of
action and is, in itself, a method of implementing this program. There
is always a general structure of the process behind a developing
operational system.»
PRIVATE General Provisions of Organizing Action Against Drug Abuse
The above mentioned makes it possible to outline the following
principles of an efficiently organized effort against drug abuse in the
Russian Federation.
As the manifestations of drug abuse continue to grow and diversify, a
real counteraction is possible only in the framework of a well-tested
and scientifically based government policy which defines the forms,
tasks and contents of the government’s contribution to this effort. The
understanding of drug abuse phenomenon should be reflected in the
Concept of the government policy towards narcotics. Its principal goal
is to secure legislative and organizational realization of
anti-narcotics efforts, bring harmony and coordination into the
activities of different ministries and departments, draw up a list of
priorities and concentrate the available resources for their
synchronized deployment. No other document but such a Concept can lay
the solid foundation for the National Program of Counteraction against
Narcotics. The Program necessarily requires an approval at the highest
level by the President, the government and the parliament to make all of
its provisions mandatory for everyone.
The development of the National Program stands out as one of the most
important tasks among the anti-narcotics measures. It is essential to
invite experts in different fields of research, as well as the
practitioners from the concerned departments to participate in it. The
list of participants, the scope of their duties and the financing are to
be endorsed by the government. The authors of the Program have personal
responsibility for producing a profound analysis of the situation with
drugs, and for the efficiency of the recommended methods for combating
drug abuse. They are also responsible for providing research or
organizational background during the implementation of the steps they
have recommended. The time frame and other specifics of the program must
be included in the resolutions of the government and the parliament.
2. The main goal of the government policy in regard to narcotic
substances should be: a) to prevent their use for other than medical
purposes; b) curb the demand for them; c) and curtail their illegal
manufacturing and turnover. This goal is attainable in practical terms
only through a set of coordinated steps in politics, economy,
legislation and public health. They should be directed at perfecting the
laws regulating narcotics. Methods should be developed of an early
identification of the persons who use drugs for non-medical reasons, of
their treatment and rehabilitation. Policies should be developed
counteracting the unlawful production and sale of drugs at the national
and international setting.
3. The mandatory measures of organizational, legislative and material
support of the government policy in the field of drugs fall into two
categories.
The first category implies the establishment of an inter-departmental
anti-narcotics system of measures, which will incorporate the following
elements.
Information support of the program. The departments involved should set
up a data bank to store information about the state of affairs in
narcotics, the proliferation of drugs, the accurate techniques of drug
identification, and other data – national and international – which will
help make decisions and implement measures against narcotics.
Research and technical support. Conducting fundamental research of and
quick response analysis on drugs, the development of advanced techniques
and technologies of halting narcotics should be implemented.
Administrative support. The President, the parliament or the government
should found a special committee entrusted with the overall monitoring
of the drug abuse in the republic. This agency also should map out a
uniform national strategy and tactics, direct and coordinate all the
elements of the struggle against narcotics, and set up subordinate
regional committees and commissions. As need be, it should be able to
amend the state policy in regard to drugs. This agency surely must
include psychiatrists specializing in the treatment of addicts, lawyers,
psychologists, sociologists, teachers, pharmacists, journalists and
other specialists and experts, as well as representatives from the
ministries of public health, social welfare, education, agriculture,
foreign economic ties, industry and trade, transport,
telecommunications, foreign affairs, the interior, justice, finance,
national security (as well as of the foreign intelligence service), air,
maritime, and inland water transport, of the State Bank, Intourist,
customs service, and the Prosecutor’s Office.
Material support. Financing should be provided for the National Program
to Counteract Drug Abuse in general and for its specific aspects. The
financing structure may include specialized funds.
Medical support. A mechanism of medical interaction on the issues of
drugs must involve all the agencies and departments concerned and their
separate branches.
Support from the system of education. It is necessary to train an
appropriate number of anti-drug specialists with due regard to the
experience gained by their foreign counterparts.
Accountability. Regulated accountability and control of all the agencies
and departments participating in the campaign against narcotics should
be established. The participants will be furnished with special sets of
documents and evaluation criteria. They will bear personal
responsibility for the final results.
The second category of mandatory measures defines the direction of the
effort against narcotics, sets out the target goals and names the
participants. At a minimum, the main direction should be of a
simultaneous offensive on the production, trade and consumption of
drugs.
In the field of legislative regulation, a set of laws on combating
narcotics should encompass a) perfection of the effective legal acts on
drugs, b) the legally defined rules of identification, check-up and
voluntary/compulsory treatment of drug addicts, c) the rules of drug
identification, d) legislative support of international cooperation
including the obligations that arise from the international treaties and
agreements, e) elaboration of legal norms to fight drug-related
money-laundering, f) and bringing national legislation in line with the
international laws.
In the field of medicine: the identification, medical treatment and
social rehabilitation of drug addicts presupposes improving the methods
of early diagnosis and treatment of addiction, the development of
prophylactic measures, a system of registering and monitoring drug
abusers, the gathering and analysis of information and information
exchange between relevant departments.
In the sphere of combating drug-related crimes, it is essential to
suppress the illegal cultivation of plants containing narcotic
substances, improve control over the transportation of narcotics across
borders, and curb their clandestine manufacture. It is also necessary to
control the manufacturing, storage and trade in the chemicals and
equipment, which may be used in the illegal production of drugs. The
stamping-out of such crimes necessitates stringent regulatory mechanisms
in the production, transportation and use of narcotic substances for
medical and research purposes, as required by the international
conventions, advancement of investigative methods, improvement in the
customs service, administrative and other forms of curtailing crimes
linked to drugs and limiting the illegal demand for them. The circle of
involved participants in actions against narcotics, especially in the
field of prophylactics and halting the spread of drug abuse should be
enlarged through unconventional forms and methods of work, such as
invigorating the efforts of religious and charitable organizations,
private companies, psychological aid centers, army units, and so on.
Understandably, the suggested list of efforts is not exhaustive.
Nonetheless, it puts the emphasis on the main directions and can be
viewed as a version of a multifaceted approach toward organizing a
program of action combating drug abuse.
PRIVATE The Experience of Other Countries
The experience of countries that have developed national programs
against drug abuse can be very instrumental in drawing up a national
anti-narcotics program.
In 1982, the United States adopted a program against drug trafficking
and organized crime. Its implementation presumed mapping out a special
presidential policy and the participation of the governors of all the
states.
PRIVATE The USA
The then US President Ronald Reagan sanctioned the allocation of an
additional USD 130 million to the Department of Justice budget for the
implementation of that program. These funds were distributed to the
federal law-enforcement agencies, the judiciary, penitentiaries and the
police. The administration envisioned an increase in the number of
prosecutors, FBI agents, and the personnel of anti-drug departments,
customs services, the coast guards, Internal Revenue Service,
Immigration Naturalization Service, and other departments.
More than a half of the allocation was set aside as salary and bonuses
for special service agents. The rest was spent on modernizing police
equipment, the renovation of the state and federal prisons, and
enhancement of the FBI technical capabilities in neutralizing criminals
who can afford the most up-to-date listening devices and surveillance
equipment.
The program also made provisions for creating special regional task
force, and creating programs for participation in actions against drug
abuse by the state, as well as for more room in federal jails.
Coordination committees responsible to the Secretary of Justice were
established in all of the 94 Federal judicial districts. The committees
were obliged to make up plans for fighting grave crimes at the county,
state and national levels.
It was for the first time that a program envisioned deployment of the
armed forces against the spread of drugs. Their task was to detect and
detain traffickers, especially at the US-Mexican border and in the
Caribbean.
A variety of drug prevention programs were developed at the regional
level, such as the program of aid to potential abusers and their victims
in the District of Columbia or the program against the abuse of drugs
and alcohol by adolescents in Maryland. Many of them, however, remained
ineffective not because they lacked professionalism, but more often
because the moves lacked coordination. Not rare was the shortage of
financing, technical and personnel support.
In 1989, the US adopted the national strategy against drugs, which is
executed by more than thirty federal departments, including the CIA.
American experts believe that the US share of the worldwide consumption
of drugs is more than a fifty per cent. They also consider drug
trafficking as a global threat which cannot be controlled by the efforts
of a single country. There must be international cooperation to settle
this bedeviling problem.
Since the bulk of drugs originate outside the US, the Administration put
an emphasis on attacking drug dealers on their home territory and on
stepping up counteraction to the proliferation and sale of drugs inside
the country. The strategy evidently has flaws, as the situation shows no
signs of dramatic improvement.
PRIVATE Canada
On May 25th, 1987, the Canadian government officially introduced a
national strategy against drug abuse. The strategy had resulted from
long consultations with provincial governments, different private
organizations and individual specialists. The goal of the strategy was
to shape a unified course of actions against the abuse of drugs in
Canada.
The general supervision of its implementation was vested in the Ministry
of Health and Social Welfare. Other participants were the Royal Mounted
Police of Canada, the Directorate of the Penitentiaries, the Ministry of
Justice, the Customs Department and the Excise Tax Service, the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Training and Youth.
The main goal was to work out a balanced line of action that would meet
the needs of all Canadians, bring down the impact of alcohol and other
stimulants on individuals, families and entire communities. The strategy
comprised six directions of action: 1)education and prevention,
2)control over law abidance, 3) medical treatment and rehabilitation, 4)
gathering of information and research, 5) international cooperation 6)
and national policy. Over two-thirds of the resources were directed into
the educational, preventive and treatment programs to curtail demand on
the banned substances.
The Royal Mounted Police had the assignment to help develop and
implement five initiatives on restraining the supply of and the demand
for drugs, namely 1) a program to curb the black marketing of drugs, 2)
the coordination of coastal guard patrol, 3) the gathering and
processing of data on drugs, 4) technical assistance to foreign
countries and 5) an educational program.
Canadian experts note that it is hard to measure the effects of this
program yet, but all the above measures contribute to saving lives and
making the nation healthier.
PRIVATE The United Kingdom
The British government is acting upon a multifaceted anti-narcotic
strategy that it adopted in 1994. There are five strategic priority
aspects in it 1) cutting down drug imports, 2) raising the efficiency of
law enforcement, 3) exercising effective deterrence measures and strict
control inside the country, 4) organizing preventive efforts, and
improving the treatment and 5) the rehabilitation of drug addicts.
The government strategy is based on the assumption that all the problems
of narcotics are inter-related. Therefore, parallel measures against the
supply and demand of drugs are necessary. It is intended to scale down
illegal imports of drugs by supporting international efforts against
their manufacture and trade, reinforcing the customs and police force,
toughening control over the legitimate production, and consumption of
drugs for medical purposes, deterring drug dealers by heavy fines and
depriving them of their illegal profits.
The struggle to curtail demand must follow two general lines – keeping
the new addicts from abuse and rendering aid to those whom have
developed addiction.
To ensure proper interaction of all the elements of this strategy, the
British government has set up a working inter-departmental group from
among the ministers and high-ranking executives. The parliamentary
deputy home secretary heads the group. Also participating in its work
are officials of the home office, the ministries of health, social
welfare, and finance, the customs service, the department of overseas
territories, the environmental department, and so on.
The new government-run intelligence service for drugs has replaced the
older drugs central intelligence. Police and customs officers staff the
government-run intelligence. Its duty is to gather, analyze and
distribute information obtained either abroad or at home.
The regional anti-drug departments have special support units. The
customs service has been reinforced by top-class specialists and
top-notch smuggling clampdown equipment. In compliance with the 1986 law
on illegal drug trade, the police and the courts have received broader
authority as to the identification, freezing and confiscation of drug
dealers’ profits. In 1988 the UK and the USA signed a bilateral
agreement on the confiscation of the discredited bank assets.
The police and the customs service have formed a special financial
division to accumulate on a national scale, survey and pass down for
further investigation the data on financial issues, i.e. reports from
the banks and other financial institutions on monetary deposits of
questionable origin.
The government has outlined the procedure for police operations against
the three categories of drug dealers, big, medium and small.
Great Britain upholds the international community’s efforts by
contributing annually Pound Sterling 150,000 to the UN Fund for Drug
Abuse Control. As mentioned before, the UK also runs a program of
assistance to overseas projects.
Regarding the drug abuse situation, a review of the government measures
underlines that the government-sponsored policy works toward a closer
international cooperation, enhances the efforts of the law-enforcement
agencies, helps the younger generation realize the impact of drug
addiction and boosts the effort against this evil.
PRIVATE Mexico
The drug control programs in Mexico differ from those in other countries
as Mexico is a hotbed of manufacture and export of opium, heroin and
marijuana and a major cocaine trafficking transit point to the United
States. Some Mexican states have traditional plantations of opium poppy,
marijuana and Indian hemp. Economic hardships often force the farmers
into dealing with drug dealers and prompt the growing of illegal crops,
which produce profits higher than the earnings from lawful businesses.
The anti-drug programs, therefore, focus on mass destruction of narcotic
crops from the air or manually and the involvement of army units in such
operations, harsh penal sanctions, intensive investigation of drug
cartels and trafficking channels, and dissemination of information among
the public.
Growing cooperation with the USA on the basis of bilateral agreements
and a treaty of juridical assistance is an important element of the
anti-narcotic policy. It facilitates the identification of drug-related
money laundering in the financial and commercial institutions both in
Mexico and the US. The Advance Guard program presupposes operations to
detect and destroy the plantations of drug-bearing crops. Starting from
1986, units of the Mexican Army and of the US Coastal Guard have been
conducting operations to detain suppliers of drugs in the Mexican
territorial waters, to confiscate their cars and arms, and to control
flights in the border area as part of the American Mexican operation
Alliance.
PRIVATE Spain
The national program against drug abuse in Spain deserves notice as the
Spanish laws permit soft narcotic substances. Despite the expectations
and arguments of the proponents of drug legalization, drug abuse in
Spain does not subside. Neither does the crime rate. The number of
violent assaults to obtain money for drugs is on the rise. The
law-enforcement agencies’ task has been set as eradicating drug abuse,
opening specialized medical centers for the addicts who volunteer to
undergo treatment, and combating drug addiction and prostitution as the
factors increasing the risk of AIDS infection.
The main goals of the Spanish program against drug abuse are to halt the
proliferation of the most heinous drugs like heroin and cocaine,
organize prophylactic measures among the young people of 16-to-18,
promulgate popular knowledge about medicine and treatment of drug
addicts by way of educational lectures, and advance public
organizations’ activities.
PRIVATE France
The French national program against narco-business sponsored by the
Ministry of the Interior and Public Safety focuses on curbing the
illegal trade in drugs, and, in particular, the street vending of
narcotic substances. The document provides for the creation of
special-task police units and a national center to coordinate all police
operations against drug abuse. Narco-business-suppression training
courses have been introduced at police schools. Large police
commissariats now have specialized branches to monitor drug abuse. These
branches render practical and financial assistance to various
organizations engaged in fighting against the abuse of narcotic and
toxic chemical substances.
The experience of foreign anti-narcotics programs can be adapted to the
requirements of the Russian Federation and help work out a feasible
National Program of Comprehensive Counteraction to Narcotics
Par. 2. Organization of Medical Counteraction to Narcotics
The primary aspect of the entire anti-narcotics effort is a series of
medical treatment measures. They are carried out by different medical
institutions as actions against narcotics is inalienable from the
activities of public health services of all levels, including the
medical service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1975 the former
Soviet medical authorities detached the addictions treatment service
from psychiatry. Thus the treatment of drug and other addicts became a
separate branch of medicine known as narcology.
The efforts of the medical institutions make up a significant part of
the anti-narcotics strategy. Their goal is to bring about a decrease in
the demand for drugs. This is achieved by the treatment and
rehabilitation of abusers and, in the final run, is a positive factor of
a general improvement in the drug abuse situation.
The measures, which the health centers, are obliged to take, can roughly
be divided into two groups. Group One includes the properly medical
efforts in the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts. Group Two
embraces other organizational steps to keep narcotics at bay.
The international community also pays considerable attention to the
treatment of drug addicts. Article 38 of the Uniform Convention on Drugs
states that the signatory countries will take every possible step to
prevent the misuse of narcotic substances, ensure an early
identification of abusers, treat them, restore them to full working
capability, re-socialize, and monitor them after the completion of
treatment (Paragraph 1). The countries will train appropriate personnel
(Paragraph 2), and will inform the population about the hazards of drug
abuse (Paragraph 3). The medical treatment of drug addicts is also
presupposed by Resolution II of the UN conference on implementing the
Uniform Convention on Drugs. Reminding of the provisions of Article 38,
the conference stressed that hospital treatment in a drug-free
atmosphere is the most efficacious medical approach to the issue. It
recommended that economically potent countries where drug abuse is a
serious problem provide the opportunities for such treatment.
PRIVATE The Treatment and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts
The issues of medical treatment/social rehabilitation of addicts and
other relevant measures are to a greater or lesser degree incorporated
in the public health programs of all nations and have found reflection
in certain regional programs. As a rule, these documents emphasize
perfection of the strategies and organization of drug abuse services on
the assumption that drug abuse is a social disease. The other important
aspects are financing and material/technical support, personnel,
informing definite sectors of society on the hazardous impact of
addiction, research in the field of more effective medicine.
Experts, however, warn against an overly simplified belief that
containing drug addiction boils down to the availability of medicines
and available hospital beds. The prophylactics of social illnesses like
alcoholism, misuse of narcotics and toxic chemicals cannot be built upon
the same methods as the treatment of serious infectious diseases.
Alongside pharmaceutics, it requires psychological aid and education
which more and more often involves the addicts’ families and friends. It
is naive to believe that medicines and injections alone can bring about
the desired results and that the selection of individually suitable
pharmaceutical preparations gives a clue to the problem of treatment.
Good results are yielded by a combination of psychology and pharmacy.
Therefore, the treatment for drug addiction consumes much painstaking
effort of a doctor, psychologist, educator and other specialists working
with a person who is likely to develop the illness or is ill already.
On the face of it, the issues of treatment and prophylactics necessitate
comprehensive programming and proficient organization. Their solution
lies in the medico-biological, medico-psychological and medico-social
spheres.
From the standpoint of government policy, public health institutions
have the exclusive authority to treat drug addicts by officially
approved methods, including compulsory treatment of the addicts who pose
danger to society.
According to the results expected in this field, health centers must
organize and effectuate a series of measures destined to establish firm
grounds for progress in the drug abuse situation.
In the first place, this means the early identification, diagnosis and
registration of the persons who use drugs for non-medical purposes and
hence stand in need of prophylactic and treatment. However, shortcomings
in the existing methods of express-diagnostics and in the expert
check-ups of drug addicts make establishing the degree and the type of
drug dependence somewhat problematic.
PRIVATE Identification, Diagnosis and Registration of Drug Users
The identified addicts may belong to different age and social groups;
their condition may have a different degree of narcotic neglect. This
fact may influence the choice, distribution and intensity of medical
measures, as well as their combination with other types of aid.
Of particular importance is the early identification of addicts among
the young and the adolescents. A timely medical interference, caring
participation and influence of parents, relatives, teachers, police
officers, and the atmosphere of friendliness can stop the youngsters’
slump into illness.
When the consumers of different drugs have been identified, it is
exigent to inform the police to enable it to find the sources of drugs
and trafficking channels and execute other preventive measures.
Information is especially important if the drugs have been manufactured
illegally or their origins are unclear.
The following list of measures can help identify the individuals who
misuse narcotic substances:
medical check-ups of industrial labor staffs, school and college
students;
medical check-ups of inmates in jails and penitentiaries;
medical examination of the perpetrators of drug abuse for further
registration and treatment, including compulsory treatment;
specialized testing of certain professionals (the military, pilots,
drivers of all means of transport, police officers) for the bodily
presence of narcotic substances;
revealing the most dangerous forms of drug abuse that complicated
detoxification, revealing the cases of multiple drug misuse (the
combined use of more than one drug) and the cases of an intertwined
abuse of drugs and alcohol;
identification of addicts who carry the HIV and other infectious
diseases, elimination of the consequences of infectious transmission;
timely registration, treatment and rehabilitation of those who need it.
Another way to improve the health servicing of drug abusers is to
organize:
fundamental research; development of efficacious pharmaceutical
preparations and novel methods of treatment for different types of
narcotic dependence, their speedy translation into public health
practices; large-scale contribution to research from Russian and foreign
scientists (the Academy of Sciences, medical, pedagogical, psychological
and other research institutions, application of practices adopted
abroad);
accelerated training of highly qualified personnel (addictive conditions
psychiatrists, psychologists, educators, social workers) at medical
colleges and upper level courses, specialized training of medical
attendants, nurses and technicians. The study program should cover not
only the novel methods of treatment, but also the specifics of contacts
with the drug addicts and methods of readiness for treatment and
prophylactic practice;
organization of new preventive-treatment/ registration clinics,
out-patient departments at industrial facilities and offices, emergency
aid centers and a wide publication of data on their mode of operation,
anonymous and commercial treatment centers for drug addicts;
extensive adoption by drug-abuse monitoring services of the achievements
in the medical science, psychology, pedagogy, pharmacy, and
special-purpose technology;
modernization of drug-abuse monitoring services, improvement of material
supplies and provision of the necessary personnel.
The post-treatment rehabilitation measures should include: a) the
creation of purpose-oriented government-run and charity funds, ex-drug
abusers support funds and diverse forms of work with them; b)
development of rehabilitation methods based on the effective analysis of
the existing rehabilitation procedures and of qualification levels of
the personnel; c) psychological assistance to the former abusers’
families, relatives, and friends who must be taught the techniques of
exerting favorable influence on the patients.
Equally important is the organization of other anti-narcotics efforts
taken by public health institutions.
The health of the nation is an important element of the social and
economic development of a country. From this angle, the popularization
of a rational way of life, the cultivation of respect for human health
as the basic value of society ranks high among the priorities of medical
institutions.
PRIVATE Publicizing Information Against Drugs
A skillful and persistent dissemination of knowledge about the
destructive impact of drugs and their detriment for the future
generations is a crucial activity of medical institutions in the
struggle against narcotics.
It is advisable to find a particular audience and do masterly
presentations. Lectures and discussions are not the only means of
knowledge dissemination. Meetings with former drug addicts and
presentations about broken human lives have also proved productive.
To increase the prophylactic effects of popularization, it would be
useful to train the instructors on the methods and tactics of
campaigning against narcotics, design a system of mass anti-narcotic
education, based on medical science, provide the necessary teaching
aids, control and stimulate this activity.
PRIVATE Organization of Control Over the Use of Narcotic Substances
Public health institutions have responsibilities in exercising control
over narcotic substances under international conventions, treaties,
agreements and other forms of international cooperation in combating
drug abuse. As mentioned earlier, their primary responsibility is to
control the proper use of drugs, the correct taking of their stock,
their storage, distribution and removal. The issue of special prominence
is the storage of narcotic substances at medical institutions and
warehouses and the thwarting of attempts to misappropriate them.
Inspections often expose serious flaws in this field.
To rule out a possible abuse, leakage or misappropriation of drugs, the
following list of measures is essential:
guarding narcotic substance storage facilities, fitting them out with
new equipment and fire/break-in alarm systems connected to the central
control panel or to the 24-hour operational medical personnel or guards
mail;
proper protection of the points where drugs are stored in small
quantities for distribution as administered by the physicians;
tightened control over big-batch long-term storage facilities like the
warehouses of regional drug-store administrations, and strategic
reserves warehouses;
regular inspections at narcotic drug warehouses;
strict abidance by the rules of taking stock, storage and use of drugs
for medical purposes;
a timely exchange of information with the police on the above issues and
cooperation in drawing up the lists of drug storage facilities.
Experience suggests that a successful solution of the problem depends on
the depth of our insight into it. This is especially true of such a
complex issue as the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts
regardless of what stage they are at. That is why the fullest and the
most objective information is essential for the medical and other
institutions to organize a counter-offensive against drug abuse. With
that goal in mind, public health centers should adhere to the following
organizational guidelines:
gathering and analysis of information on the conditions of drug addicts,
tendencies in and results of their treatment and rehabilitation, and
types and means of using drugs and the impact they have;
interaction with other institutions and departments in concrete forms of
anti-narcotics activities in such large-scale operations as Poppy and
Doping, in check-ups and research;
control surveys prepared by the narcology service.
Organizational support for these guidelines could be achieved through:
the establishment of a strict procedure for and the terms of turning in,
and registration of documents, supply of dependable information on the
actual situation with drugs and their sales and use for both medical and
non-medical purposes, on the individuals perpetrating misuse, supply of
other data essential for making specific decisions;
cooperation with other departments in holding joint selective research
and express-tests to obtain reliable information on the actual levels of
drug abuse, the damage it inflicts, the effects of treatment and other
types of aid to the addicts;
scheduled and unscheduled departmental and/or inter-departmental
inspections of how control over drugs is maintained, and how the rules
of their use and storage are observed;
analysis and broad publicity of the achievements of medical staffs who
have a record of positive results in combating narcotics, as well as
provision of incentives.
The scope of health institutions’ duties also embraces revealing and
timely informing the relevant departments and the public at large on
dangerous tendencies in drug abuse, new varieties of stupefying
substances, the techniques of their manufacture and the means of use.
The public health system develops the adequate methods of prevention,
treatment, and counteraction.
Par. 3. Enforcement of Legal Measures of Narcotics Counteraction
The organization of legal enforcement of anti-narcotics measures falls
into three groups:
1) application of legal administrative and criminal legal norms
regulating the prevention and suppression of narcotics; 2) government
legal measures to set and refine law enforcement and other agencies
combating narcotics; 3) international anti-narcotics measures.
Group One includes compulsory treatment of drug addicts and measures
against drug-related crimes. Compulsory treatment of drug addicts is a
law-enforcement measure aimed at cutting down the non-medical use of
narcotic substances. It can be administered by the court to an addict
who evades voluntary treatment or who continues misusing drugs after a
course of treatment. If an addict commits a crime, the court metes out
punishment in combination with compulsory treatment.
PRIVATE Compulsory Treatment of Drug Addicts
Compulsory treatment is prescribed to all categories of abusers at
medical institutions with a specialized treatment procedure in the
course of work therapy. If criminal punishment is imposed, the treatment
is executed at the penitentiary during the term of imprisonment.
Placement of drug addicts to mandatory treatment centers is in the
domain of responsibilities of police departments. This activity goes
hand in hand with the following organizational measures:
identification of individuals perpetrating drugs abuse;
administering a medical examination, and a compulsory visit to a medical
institution in case of a refusal to undergo the procedure voluntarily;
compulsory hospitalization for complete check-up upon conclusion of a
narcologist (psychiatrist specializing in addictive conditions –
translator’s note). Notification is given to the prosecutor’s office
and, if an underage addict is hospitalized, to his or her parents.
timely and renewable registration of drug addicts at the drug-patient
monitoring clinics, and prophylactic registration of the individuals
whose misuse of drugs has not yet acquired the form of an illness;
supervision over the daily way of life of the registered patients and
checking their attempts to skip compulsory treatment, imposition of
other measures of educational, medical and legal influence;
issuance of documents for placing the addicts who avoid mandatory
treatment to rehabilitation and work-therapy clinics and specialized
drug-abuse Medicare centers; filing documents on treatment of evaders
with the courts;
escorting of addicts to the places of mandatory treatment, registration
of individuals who were formerly sentenced for drug-related crimes or
fell under administrative liability for misuse of drugs;
individual prophylactic measures against addicts to whom corrective
labor has been meted out without a term of imprisonment, or whose
sentences have been suspended or deferred;
treatment of drug addicts at corrective labor institutions
simultaneously with serving a term, supervision over inmates’ treatment
and behavior.
PRIVATE Organizational Law Enforcement Measures Against Drug-Related
Crimes
Other organizational law enforcement measures against narcotics-related
crimes are: locating the illegal plantations of narcotic-bearing crops
and identifying their growers, eradicating such plantations, securing
prohibitions to grow narcotic substance containing crops, making special
maps upon the inspections of gardens, private plots of land and
wastelands, cooperating with agriculture experts, army units and other
departments concerned, carrying out special task operations and
disseminating information on drugs.
It is of paramount importance to reorganize the system of guarding
government-controlled plantations of hemp and the like crops or create
such a system in the places where it is absent. This measure is closely
linked to the development of advanced methods of crop guarding,
especially, in harvesting seasons. Work by shifts and material
incentives may prove effective. Good results can also be obtained
through the improvement of technical and chemical means of protection.
To limit the access of the public at large to the areas of
government-sponsored drug- bearing crop plantations, it would stand to
reason to establish special passport and traffic control in such areas.
PRIVATE Organization of Measures to Suppress Drug-Dealing
The measures to suppress drug dealing are the most important issue at
present. Manufacture and trade in narcotics has become a branch of the
shadow economy. It is gaining momentum, creating production facilities
and channels of distribution. In a large number of cases the
understaffed law enforcement departments are unable to rebuff the
onslaught of drug manufacturers and offer sound alternatives to all
aspects of drug abuse.
The illegal production of drugs that spill over the state borders and
continents is at the top of the world community’s agenda. Particular
significance is attached to the clandestine drug laboratories.
In the wake of it, it is exigent to set up specialized police
departments, which will concentrate the officers of high professional
expertise, and to provide them with the necessary material and technical
support.
Foreign experts believe tangible results in eradicating clandestine
laboratories can be achieved if police operations to uncover the
channels by which the raw materials arrive and the end product is
dispatched are synchronized with the efforts to block access to chemical
substances and equipment the manufacture of drugs requires. This,
however, is not easy as some drug synthesis components such as acetic
anhydride, ether, benzene, acetone are extensively used in the
industrial sector. Their industrial consumption is not controlled in
practical terms since, in most countries, legislation does not regulate
the production, storage and use of these chemicals.
Experts in Germany propose in this connection that the laws against
drugs should extend to cover these chemicals too. But the output and
industrial use of the above substances is so massive that the attempts
to take them under control within the boundaries of a single country
have yielded no results while entailing substantial expenditure on
organizing the control service.
Another measure suggested is marking the packing of chemical substances
with special marks that would help the police identify the country of
origin and the manufacturer. Such a step, however, is unproductive as in
most cases the police does not get a hold of packing of the chemicals
which had already been used.
Experts consider as more promising the special laboratory tests of the
confiscated narcotic substances and chemicals used in the manufacture of
drugs. The tests can be more helpful in identifying the country of
origin, elucidating specific features of the technological process and
other fundamental properties of the chemicals.
For instance, specialists of the German institute of criminology have
designed on the basis of the American and Swedish experience methods of
identifying the places of origin of heroin through chromatographic
testing.
Experts believe the most effective way to control the proliferation of
the substances used in drug manufacturing could be the marking of such
substances with dyes or radiation. The weak point of the method is a
possible impact the marking may have on the qualities of the chemicals
and the end products. Besides, it would contradict the legislation of
many countries and some international agreements. That is why the
researchers of anti-narcotic methods tend to pin hopes on the method of
a different nature – self-control. It encompasses a set of
police-proposed measures that are effectuated by the services directly
involved in actions against illegal manufacturing, trafficking and trade
in drugs, as well as by all companies and individuals who have a
connection with the manufacturing, sales and use of narcotics and
auxiliary chemicals. According to this concept, the producers, suppliers
and consumers of chemicals report to the police all suspicious
purchases. The police, in its turn, work out detailed recommendation and
criteria for such cases. Examples of these criteria are above-the-
statistic-average size of a purchased batch of chemicals, a request from
a new client, etc. Such kind of reporting gives the police more
opportunities to locate illegal laboratories, channels of raw materials
supplies and dispatch of the end product.
An imperative condition for putting in effect practical anti-narcotics
measures is stringent control over the narcotic raw materials and their
storage and limitations on trade in them.
It is important to note those drug-dealing affects the legitimate
turnover of narcotic substances. Violations of the rules of their
storage, manufacturing, and accounting continue increasing. There are
misappropriations and other offenses, including attacks on warehouses of
narcotic preparations in health centers, drug stores, etc. Executives do
not take adequate measures to safeguard narcotic substances and sometime
become accomplices in crimes. A possible explanation for this state of
affairs is the breach of the rules outlined above.
It is important to reveal violations of the effective rules of
manufacturing, storage, accounting, and sales of narcotic preparations,
invoking criminal liability when necessary. This necessitates joint
steps by the anti-drug units, licensing system of the internal affairs
ministry, fire detachments and units of extra-departmental guards.
The perpetrators of drug-related crimes’ utmost secrecy calls for the
improvement in the procedures of investigation in strict compliance with
the criminal law procedures.
PRIVATE Crime Investigation Organizational Measures
An important element in this process is the interaction between
detectives and investigators. The best and well-tested form of this
interaction is the setting-up of temporary or, as need be, permanently
functioning inquiry/investigation groups. These groups focus the efforts
of all branches of the police on drug-related crimes. The main
directions of activities (with due regard to the limits of professional
competence of each member of the group) are:
a) gathering and systematic analysis of all the incoming and requested
information on drug-related crimes and malefactors;
b) identification of criminal groupings and measures toward halting
their activities;
c) police actions to prevent and halt misappropriations of drugs and
other offenses in medicare institutions and other organizations;
d) police actions taken simultaneously with the investigation as
envisaged by the criminal law court procedure;
e) quality emergency investigation, completeness, objectivity and
timeliness of inquiry and investigation;
f) tactical planning and expedient conduct of search and technical
operations; professional conduct of operations; employment of
investigation and other technologies to supply the investigators with
testimonies and eye-witness accounts of the offenders’ guilt;
g) professional analysis of the ways of using the results of search and
technical operations in investigation procedures.
Par. 4. Other Organizational Measures to Combat Narcotics
Narcotics can be overcome only if approaches to anti-narcotics activity
are fundamentally revised, its concrete trends are mapped out and the
control over the end results achieved by each ministry and department,
responsible for curbing this social evil.
Up-to-date scales and forms of narcotics proliferation show that the
measures, applied within the framework of established structures, are
not particularly successful. There is no proper interaction between the
ministries and the departments, called upon to handle these matters;
work is carried out far too often formally without essential drive,
consistence, and organization; the system of preventive, therapeutic,
and rehabilitative help remains inadequate; and anti-narcotic campaign
is ineffective.
For this reason, organizational medical and law enforcement steps can
and must be backed by measures to resist drug abuse in all spheres and
at all levels of state power to avoid their imbalance and flaws in the
all-out anti-narcotics crusade.
The practical experience of daily anti-narcotics activity calls for a
significant impact from the top government agencies.
It is at this level that measures should be adopted for creating and
implementing a single national strategy against narcotics. For this end,
a single permanent executive body, empowered to control narcotics and
capable of coordinating comprehensive actions daily against drug
addiction and drug-related crimes must be created. The formation of such
a body, representing all the ministries and departments concerned, will
make it possible to organize a prompt and permanent government action
against narcotics, coordinate efforts of government agencies, and other
organizations, as well as individuals, and maintain contact with
international organizations.
PRIVATE Lawmaking Measures
It is important to revitalize government-sponsored efforts toward
hammering out a single anti-narcotics legislation, matching
international standards, including 1) a law on the `control over the
legal distribution of narcotics, strong substances, precursors, and 2)
on the responsibility for such offences as: drugs extortion; illegal
actions with government-owned chemicals and special equipment and their
use to make drugs; 3) organizational forms of perpetrating drug-related
crimes; 4) various commercial and financial operations on money
laundering.
Due to the latter, it is necessary to give law enforcement agencies more
authority to get from banks and other institutions and organizations
necessary data on accounts and other financial transactions of persons,
suspected of unlawful actions with narcotics.
Besides, it appears reasonable to amend the current legislation by
expanding authority and creating appropriate conditions for
law-enforcement agencies (police) to a) conduct searches of luggage,
including carry-on luggage, of passengers at all kinds of transport
facilities, b) check controlled shipments and cargoes, c) check state
purchases of drugs, d) conduct medical examinations of citizens, e) set
a more flexible procedure of placing drug addicts for medical treatment,
f) a more flexible system of administrative detaining and arresting of
citizens, and g) to practice more extensively the protocol form of
pre-trial materials preparation.
PRIVATE Organizational Measures at Government Level
It would be expedient to carry out a number of organizational
anti-narcotics measures at government level. They include:
– creating a stable system of information for regional law-enforcement
agencies about treaties, agreements, and protocols, concluded and signed
by countries, governments, and departments, about procedures and
requirements of signing such documents, about Interpol National Central
Bank’s opportunities to combat specific types of crimes, and about
requests’ formulation requirements;
– putting the NCB on round-the-clock duty to meet local requests;
– speeding up the creation of effective border customs control and
adopting measures against the use of a country as a transit point to
ship drugs to other regions;
– toughening control over the production and supplies of drug-bearing
substances in chemical pharmacology and other areas, where they are used
for lawful purposes.
A positive solution should be found to the issue of opening more medical
centers, improving anti-drug addiction therapy, and manufacturing and
acquiring more effective medicines, which involves much government
spending and a search for sources of funding. Simultaneously, special
government-financed short and long term comprehensive medical programs
should be worked out and put into effect to block the consumption and
sale of drugs; really re-socialize drug addicts; stop AIDS from
spreading; spare no effort toward revitalizing non-governmental
organizations’ activity, aimed at reducing the demand for narcotics.
PRIVATE Measures to Train Personnel
One should bear in mind that in most cases, the first contact with drug
addicts, that is with seriously ill people, is made by the officers of
law enforcement (police) agencies who have neither practical nor
psychological skills of dealing with ill persons. But even a physician
is required alongside professional knowledge, to display ethical norms,
which quite often are crucial for the recovery of mentally imbalanced
patients. For this reason, it is especially urgent and important to draw
up teaching aides and methodological recommendations for law-
enforcement agencies, not only on the tactics but also on the ethics of
dealing with drug addicts, especially young ones. It is necessary to put
the experience, gained by the police in anti-drug addiction prophylactic
actions, into practice as soon as possible.
Polish scientists identify three groups of young drug addicts: 1) those
who can but do not want to stop using drugs; 2) those who would like to
give up drugs but cannot do so on their own; 3) and those who do not
want and can not drop the ruinous dependence.
The principles of treating representatives of each of these groups
differ considerably. The experience of drug addicts’ treatment shows
that two opposite trends dominate in the systems accepted up to date.
The first prefers tolerance, partnership, and medical treatment,
excluding coercion and punishment. The second envisages tough
regimentation toward drug addicts. However, there is one requirement
that is common for both systems – indispensable compliance with the
principle of voluntary consent.
There are several varieties of pedagogics as industrial, military,
agricultural, and medical. The latter, also called orthopedagogics,
deals with upbringing children with defects. In the field of
criminological prophylaxis, essential is the role of resocialization,
i.e. of the educational effect on persons, poorly adapted to life in
society. According to the criminological literature, “the basic goal in
penitentiaries, is to create conditions for the social adaptation of
persons after their prison term is over.» All these sources of knowledge
should be made instrumental in combating drug abuse.
At the government level, interdepartmental programs involving a wide
range of experts and the media should be worked out and implemented on
educational and prophylactic campaign among the population.
PRIVATE Foreign Experience in Prophylactics.
Foreign experience deserves attention in this respect. Poland, for one,
attaches great significance to public anti-drug addiction campaigns.
Specialists are convinced that drug abuse should be addressed by the
public organizations and individuals, among them – well known
scientists, artists, writers, and clerics.
The catholic church plays a special role. Maximilian Conbeg’s Society
has all parishes offered to its program of temperance, urging them to
abstain not only from drugs but also from all unnatural desires. The
program has been backed across the board. Each diocese has priests
specially trained to render professional aid to drug addicts and to help
them return to society.
The Catholic University offers a course of lectures, which are to help
drug addicts; the newly organized Drug Prevention Society has basic
activities coinciding with that of the government and its main tasks are
to treat drug addicts, return them to society and prevent drug-related
crimes. The Society provides therapy for drug afflicted persons, and
recommendations on how to regain the healthy way of life. The Polish
Psychiatrists’ Society has an anti-drug addiction commission, pursuing
mainly scientific objectives.
The Monar youth movement immensely contributes to the anti-drug campaign
sparing no effort to return drug addicts to society by interacting with
medics. Religious and public organizations are actively involved in
anti-narcotics campaigns in other countries, too.
At the same time, it is only within the framework of a
government-sponsored program that all issues, pertaining to the
destruction of drug-bearing crops, must be addressed. For that it is
necessary to create independent agencies, furnished with advanced
equipment, aircraft, motor vehicles and other means. Such agencies can
be allowed appropriate functions only after clearance by a team of
ecological experts. Here in, strict criminal responsibility must be
enforced for carrying out such actions that destroy the environment and
harm flora and fauna. There must be compensation.
The solution of this issue depends upon the possibility of deploying the
armed forces. In the USA the army plays a key role in monitoring drug
trafficking routes. The Defense Department carries out the following
measures against criminal narco-business:
– searching for drug-bearing crops, secret laboratories, storages and
drug distribution points;
– discovering and destroying sources of producing drugs (cocaine,
marijuana, etc);
– putting under control all possible routes of smuggling drugs into the
country (by sea, by air, across land border);
– assisting state law-enforcement agencies in exposing the channels of
drug proliferation by using intelligence sensors and photo equipment in
border territories;
– coordinating operations to intercept ships and aircraft, suspected of
illegal drugs shipment;
– patrolling the coast by interceptor planes, ships, posting radars,
balloon systems to monitor low-flying objects, etc.;
– measures to get enlisted and non-enlisted army personnel cut drugs
consumption.
In 1990, the military, using search equipment, capable of locating
submerged cables and pipelines, discovered an underground tunnel at the
border with Mexico, a tunnel through which huge consignments of drugs
were smuggled into the USA. In the last few years, four anti-narcotics
techniques have been in focus: computerized systems, advanced means of
communication, field laboratory analyzers, remote chemical detectors
(photo-acoustic and laser spectroscopes for locating specific drug
production sites.) Experts regard as promising instruments for checking
baggage and cargo containers. These instruments operate on nonlinear
radar principles.
PRIVATE Organization of Comprehensive Studies
By combining the efforts of scientists and experts it would be possible
to avoid haste with setting up new creative teams and, instead, apply to
the database for information, learn its source and its author, and
decide whether it’s simpler to use it rather than carry out studies
anew. Such an approach would be quite beneficial for those whose work
has so far been wasted and for those who urgently need scientific
information.
This would also speed up the process of solving a number of drug
problems by cutting the time for scientific research and decreasing
inevitable material costs.
PRIVATE Functions of the Head Branch of the Anti-Narcotics Agency
Changes in the given situation call for an appropriate effective
response, a revision of the content and volume of work, correction of
functions carried out at the departmental level.
Particularly responsible is the role of the head branch of the agency
integrated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs which studies, analyzes,
sums up and monitors information on narcotics in the country, informs
appropriate institutions and departments about it, sets priorities in
actions against narcotics, adopts measures to attain them, and carries
out other managerial functions. This agency also arranges and takes part
in concrete anti-narcotics campaigns. These include measures to prevent
the illegal growth of drug-bearing crops (plan, organize, and carry out
POPPY operations, etc.); to curb theft of drugs and highly effective
medicinal substances; discover underground laboratories (develop, plan
and carry out Doping operations); uncover the most sophisticated crimes
(by taking direct part in investigative and search actions upon arrival
on site, providing methodological, informational and technical aid);
expose persons and criminal gangs with inter-regional and international
narco-business links; join other services in carrying out preventive
operations at airports, railway stations, customs offices to detain
criminals, check the baggage, eliminate drug trafficking channels;
upgrade work toward preventing and exposing drug-related crimes.
The volume of applicable law measures at this level bears a selective
nature, being many inferiors to the volume of managerial and other
functions. It would be more rational and effective however to rid these
branches completely of any forms of direct involvement in preventing,
exposing, and curbing crimes and thereby extend managerial functions by
raising demands for professional leadership and service management by
augmenting the staff functions of these branches and limiting their role
in exposing and curbing crimes to appropriate qualified essential
methods and effective control.
PRIVATE Perfecting Internal Affairs Ministry Work
To make law-enforcement agencies anti-drug trafficking activity more
efficient, the Internal Affairs Ministry could:
– draft comprehensive anti-drug addiction programs;
– perfect the departmental normative basis, create methods and analysis
teaching aids and video-films;
– participate in the work to bring republican anti-narcotics legislation
in line with the international acts;
– create a normative-legal basis to ensure a mechanism for bilateral and
multilateral international cooperation;
– work out, create, and introduce in day-to-day activity a mechanism of
control over the emerging narcotic situation and coordinate reaction to
its changes;
– adopt measures to provide the branches with appropriate equipment and
special devices;
– create automated information-search systems with wide-ranging
possibilities to combat criminal narco-business;
– set out short and long term guidelines;
– determine resources for the target-oriented organizational,
informative, promptly investigative and material-technical support of
areas with widespread drug abuse and rampant crime;
– control the formation of local branches and their activities;
– organize interaction between law-enforcement (police) agencies,
serving at areas where drugs are grown, trafficked, and consumed;
– coordinate various branches’ activity to carry out joint measures
toward exposing criminal gangs with inter-regional contacts and carrying
out prophylactic measures on air, sea, river, and auto transport;
– form computer data banks on drug trafficking at republican and
international levels;
– follow the USA and other countries’ experience in setting up special
mobile units, armed with the most advanced military hardware and teach
methods and ecologically safe technologies of drug crops’ destruction;
– promote law-enforcement (police) agencies’ cooperation with customs,
national security agencies, army and border troops;
– educate territorial agencies on various methods of work;
– plan cooperation with foreign agencies in preventing drugs and raw
material for narcotics from being smuggled in from other regions
practicing a specific form of controllable supplies envisaged by the
1988 UN Convention and exert control over such cooperation;
– organize and control scientific research and apply it;
– to study, sum up, and apply positive foreign experience;
One should bear in mind that the campaign against narcotics is part of
the universal action against organized crime. Efficiency at the local
level makes it possible to expose not only drug-related crimes but also
felonies, especially those involving violence and theft.
If all these organizational measures are put into practice, the campaign
against narcotics in the Russian Federation will be more effective.
Conclusion
The international community sees narcotics as one of the most dangerous
social evils. International legal acts, as well as national
legislations, including that of the Russian Federation, contain numerous
norms regulating actions against narcotics bound to suppress and prevent
it. Moves are made to perfect and update these norms so that they could
counteract new forms and methods of committing drug-related crimes.
Naturally enough, legal regulations trail after criminal thought in
these and other criminal offenses.
To narrow the gap between the rapid advancement of criminal know-how and
the introduction of the new anti-crime legislation there is a need to
monitor the spread of narcotics, assess it, watch its dynamics, forecast
its progress and carry out appropriate research. Monitoring and research
are to help pinpoint the sensitive spots of drug abuse and work out new
legal norms and methods for dealing with them.
Highly important are the application of legal norms and the planning of
various measures aiming to oppose narcotics.
Private business has been made legal in the new social and economic
conditions. Under the guise of legally established private enterprises
underground drug manufacturing laboratories and drug trade hideouts
(houses, apartments) have begun functioning as unofficial operational
reports confirm. Illegal efforts to produce and sell drugs and the
tendency for their proliferation demand emergency antidrug legislation.
Illegally-operating drug-producing and drug-selling companies present a
much bigger threat to society than all other drug-related ventures do,
now that they (a) spread new varieties of and increasingly more
hazardous drugs, (b) increase, drug production and sales manifold, (c)
promote an organized system of narcobusiness and, consequently, the
takeover of drug-trafficking by organized criminal groups, (d) take
monopoly control of drug-trafficking and reap super-profits in this
field, (e) take drug-trafficking operations beyond the national borders
and make use of their foreign connections for the acquisition,
manufacture, transportation, sending, smuggling and sale of drugs. Their
activities prompt many related crimes.
All this calls for moves to update the Russian Criminal Code with
articles on legal responsibility for the production and sale of drugs
which must be considered to belong to the categories of serious and most
serious criminal offenses punishable by ten to fifteen years of
imprisonment and the confiscation of property.
The climatic conditions on the territory of Russian Federation favor the
natural growth and cultivation of drug-bearing plants, which may be, or
are already, used for the purpose of drug production. This calls for the
need to constantly perfect methods of exposing and destroying such
plants, both those that are wild and those that are raised, which, in
turn, calls for a wide range of financial and organizational efforts.
Its geographic and geopolitical position makes the Russian Federation a
convenient trans-shipment point on the road from Asia to other former
Soviet republics and on to Europe. The Russian government, its
law-enforcement agencies, in particular, must, as a result, check
illegal attempts to take drugs across the national border, bolster up
its customs services and see to it that they upgrade their performance
and work in close cooperation with the territorial and traffic police
and other agencies expected to carry out programs of action against
narcotics.
The newly gained independence requires that the Russian Federation
confront two problems directly related to narcotics and efforts to
overcome it.
First of all, borders between Russia and other former Soviet republics
show the highest degree of transparency, i.e. border-crossing presents
almost no problem. Given the geographic and geopolitical position of
Russia, the transparency of the national border aggravates the problem
of drug smuggling and calls for the need to essentially fortify the
border and better customs control along it.
Secondly, there is the problem of international relations in the field
of narcotics and international efforts to deal with it. There are two
angles to this second problem. Now that it has gained sovereignty,
Russia has to assume upon itself the functions of establishing and
maintaining international relations, especially since it represents a
sort of a link in the chain that ties drug- producers and drug-consuming
regions together.
The second angle of this problem lies in the fact that once being a part
of the Soviet Union, Russian Federation neither faced nor could possibly
face obstacles concerning the jurisdiction of its anti-crime effort,
including crimes committed on territories of different Soviet republics.
Now that they are sovereign nations, the former Soviet republics have
national borders, which, transparent as they are, make legal action
against criminal elements possible only in the context of international
relations and in keeping with international agreements. This, naturally,
complicates the timely launching of operational and investigative
actions aimed at solving criminal cases including those of
drug-trafficking.
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