Media News > Latest News > 17.05.04

Note: This report has been provided by the Drug Policy Alliance.(The story was reported in the Moscow Times on May 14th) http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/05_17_04russia.cfm

Russians will no longer be jailed for carrying small amounts of illegal drugs under a new law that came into effect this week. President Vladimir Putin signed the legislation in December, specifying administrative fines or community service for possession of no more than 10 times the amount of a "single dose" of drugs.

It took the five months since Putin signed the bill for various lawmakers and organizations to agree on what constitutes a single dose. Anyone caught in possession of these amounts or less cannot legally be detained, a spokeswoman for the Moscow branch of the Federal Anti-Drug Service said.  Instead, a report will be filed and the fine will be determined by a court.

The new amounts are 20 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of hashish, mescaline or opium, 1.5 grams of cocaine, 1 gram of heroin or methamphetamine, and 0.003 grams of LSD. Under the old standards, someone caught with as little as 0.1 grams of marijuana could be jailed. It is important to note that foreigners can be expelled from Russia or denied re-entry even under the new, more relaxed drug laws.

Alexander Mikhailov, deputy head of the Federal Anti-Drug Service, sounded less than pleased about the new rules in an interview with the Moscow Times.

"Now drug addicts have the right to run around with their pockets full of marijuana," he said, "and we can't even detain them."

28.06.04 Update:

UN drug chief backs Russian drug reforms

The following is quoted from the Moscow Times 28.06.04, Author: Greg Walters, Staff Writer:

'[Antonio Maria] Costa [head of the UN drug control program] praised a recent Russian decision to ease penalties for drug possession, saying the revised law "appreciated the drug problem not as a law enforcement only but also as a health problem, and therefore [is] a very major commitment to working toward the problem from the demand side and not only from the supply side." '

For the full text visit http://www.moscowtimes.ru/ or contact Transform.