The Parliament registered draft Law on Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, Precursors and Narcological Assistance, this week, which aims to redefine the small, initial amount of a dosage for imposition of criminal liability, large and particularly large amounts of eight (8) drugs.

Of these substances under special control, seven (amphetamine, desomorphine, lysergic acid, MDMA, methadone, methcathinone, methamphetamine) do not have small and initial amounts for criminal liability defined in the current legislation. In the case of one substance included in the draft law - Herion, the amounts of a dosage defined by the current law are newly determined.

The uncertainty around drug quantities/amount of dosages (or the determination of inadequately small amount of substance) remains, to this day, the foundation for exercising repressive drug policy. Under such a normative framework, even a possession of drugs that are unsuitable for consumption or intended for personal use will result in severe penalties. Over the years, in the face of parliament ignoring this problem, the only solution has been to appeal to the Constitutional Court, which has made a number of decisions on the need to fairly determine the quantities of drugs.[1]

The initiated draft law, in addition to the obligation to enforce the decisions of the Constitutional Court, is, in essence, a recognition of this problem by the Parliament. Nevertheless, the proposed initiative does not meet the real needs of people affected by the current drug policy, is fragmentary in nature and is largely problematic in terms of its content due to the following reasons:

• According to the explanatory note to the draft law, the quantities of drugs that are characterized by high frequency of distribution and consumption, in practice, shall be regulated differently from the current law. While it remains a challenge in the country to aggregate statistics on drug use and plan drug policy accordingly,[2] it is unclear what sources and studies the legislators' approach is based on and why other drugs, the consumption of which is also high, are not in the list, for example - buprenorphine and cocaine);
• The newly defined amounts/dosage of these eight drugs are particularly problematic. According to the explanatory note of the draft law, in determining the amounts of a dosage, particular attention was paid to the harmful effects on the life and health of the substance user and more than one dose consumed by the episodic drug user, which was counted in a pure substance form, was taken as a measure of a dosage. The explanatory note states that the method of calculating the quantities was based on the scientific literature and the practice of laboratory examination concerning the form of the substance in which the drug is illegally removed from circulation and the calculation of its amount of dosage. Although there is no international standard for the determination of the amount of narcotic or psychotropic substances and each country sets it at its own discretion, the amendment should ensure a fair balance between the control of the distribution of substances removed from circulation and the rights of the user. In this respect, it is unclear based on what principle the single doses of the named substances were determined and the newly defined amounts could not be considered as the amount leading to the consumption-related effect.[3] For example, in the draft law, the amount of the dosage in the case of MDMA is set at 50 milligrams. At the same time, according to a report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), the average pure substance in MDMA pills in Europe is 125 milligrams.[4] It is unclear why the single dose is calculated based on the example of an episodic user and not on the daily dose of a regular user. For example, in the case of heroin, the single dose for regular users and users with dependency is often 50-100 milligrams, which is 10-20 times the amount specified in the draft law. As a result, under the determined amount of dosage for heroin (5 mg), only beginner / experimental users may no longer face criminal liability. Most of the users of this substance shall still remain subjected to criminal prosecution. It should be noted that the draft law, designed to fundamentally change drug policy, when addressing this issue, considered a daily dose for regular users, instead of a single dose sufficient for episodic use, which would protect drug users from being as severely punished as in the case drug dealing;[5]
• The explanatory note to the draft law reads that by determining the amounts of the substances under special control, the list of substances removed from circulation shall be refined and the recommendations of the international organization Human Rights Watch on drug policy reform in the country shall be implemented.[6] It should be noted that the organization referred to the problem in Georgia of punishing individuals for possession and consumption of the smallest quantities of drugs, as well as the need for decriminalization of drug use, in general and the introduction of drug policies based on public health approaches;[7]

Thus, against the background of the existing strict and punitive drug policy, the proposed draft law fails to offer fundamentally new vision and does not determine adequate amounts for specific substances.

In view of the above, the signatory organizations call on Parliament:

• Ensure the involvement of representatives of the healthcare sector, human rights organizations and drug users in the process of redefining the substances under special control and have a professional discussion around their views;
• Expand the list of drugs, the quantities of which shall be redefined under the new regulation, and, in this process, refer to the clear and foreseeable approaches to the consumption related problems, elaborated in the scientific literature and identified in practice;
• In parallel with the determining the amounts of dosages, start working on systemic drug policy reform, which shall aim to develop / implement a policy oriented at prevention, care and support.

Signatory organizations:

• Human Rights Education and Monitoring Center (EMC)
• Alternative Georgia
• Eurasian Network of People Who Use Drug (ENPUD)
• World Doctors - France;

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