deeper understanding of this dangerous phenomenon, along with the
increasing sophistication of measures against it. One can predict that this
tendency will remain steadfast and keep progressing.
Chapter IV. Measures to Suppress and Prevent Drug Abuse
Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse Regulated by Law:
International legal acts are realized on a national scale. National
measures in turn are of the three basic types: suppression, prevention, and
rehabilitation.
Legal measures of suppression are coercive measures in regard to crimes
that have already been committed. They are a combination of criminal-legal,
criminal-executive and legal-administrative measures.
The criminal-legal measures must be fully compatible with the criminal
law and registered in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They are
expected to safeguard the public from the drug-related crimes by inflicting
punishment on persons who have committed these crimes and also, in
combination with it, in cases stipulated by the law, apply coercive
measures of medical nature or, if need be, a system of guardianship. These
measures can be divided into two groups: those referring to crime and those
referring to punishment. Measures of the second group, though they are
envisaged by the norms of the criminal law, seem to be closer to legal-
executive measures, and can therefore be grouped, with a certain degree of
relativity, into the legal-executive category.
The legal-executive measures include punishment, coercive measures of
medical nature, as well as the process of executing punishment and coercive
measures of medical nature along with putting under guardianship, if
required.
Legal-administrative measures are covered by the norms of the
administrative law, establishing responsibility for the infringements of
the law and regulating compulsory treatment of drug addicts.
Measures to prevent narcotics are very diverse. Their aim is to exert
influence on various elements such as on persons using drugs, sowing and
raising drug-bearing crops, manufacturing, acquiring, storing and selling
narcotic substances and committing other drug-related crimes; on persons
committing crimes with the aim of getting the means to purchase drugs or
those undertaking criminal actions in the state of narcotic intoxication;
and on circumstances that are seen as causes and conditions of drug
addiction, etc. The preventive influence on all these persons may take
three forms: persuasion, compulsion and stimulation.
The last two forms can only be applied if they are regulated by law.
Measures to Prevent Drug Abuse Unregulated by Law:
In terms of goals these measures can be divided into general social and
special ones. General social measures have to do with society's social and
economic development, the rise in cultural, educational and moral standards
of all citizens. The economic development measures aim to increase the
production of material benefits, as well as of intellectual output making
the nation richer and the living standards higher. Social measures are
apparent in rational distribution of funds in increase the government
provides for social needs. Cultural and educational measures aim to promote
the development of art, literature, science and education; they draw an
ever-greater number of people into this process and ensure that they gain
knowledge, know-how, and skills. Measures aiming to raise moral standards
are expressed in inculcating an awareness of the need to abide by the
social, particularly, legal, religious and other norms and rules of conduct
in society. All these measures are designed to prevent crimes and
violations, including drug-related crimes, and drug abuse particularly.
Special are those measures that prevent drug abuse as such, and crimes
related to it, including those recommended by the international
organizations and fora.
These are, for example, measures to promote a healthy way of life
without consumption of narcotics and censuring the harm caused by narcotics
and drug-related crimes. These measures are implemented by means of: 1)
education - lectures, presentations at schools and other training centers,
statements on the radio, television or press; 2) training law enforcement
officers and medical personnel in the techniques of combating narcotics and
drug-related crimes by creating special educational programs and setting up
special training centers; 3) treatment and rehabilitation of addicts; 4)
collection, analysis, summary, and transmission of information about
narcotics, particularly, about new areas of drug-bearing plants, and
methods of their production, illegal channels for their exportation, as
well as the methods for moving them, using different kinds of transport; 5)
preventing the sowing and the growing of drug-bearing plants by replacing
them with other crops and stimulating the farmers and providing them an all-
round assistance; 6) blocking the channels through which narcotics are
moved along; curbing the smuggling of drugs through the joint efforts of
customs and law-enforcement officers of neighboring countries specializing
in actions against narcotics; 7) supervising the fulfillment of anti-drug
laws regulating the sowing and growing of drug-bearing plants, drug
circulation, etc; 8) reducing the demand for drugs by preventing their
transfer from the legal to the illegal domain, including the use of a
"daily dosage method" which makes it possible to determine the correlation
between the quantity of drugs necessary for medical and research needs and
the volume of sale; 9) introduction of remote control devices to estimate
the scale of illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants in remote places
and creating obstacles for laundering money and other property acquired as
a result of drug trafficking.
In terms of the time, frame measures against narcotics and drug-related
offenses can be divided into early warning, direct impact and
postpenitentiary prophylactic.
The early warning measures are expected to exert influence on persons,
who are not well-versed in drugs and their danger, and who are informed on
the subject but do not take drugs. The preventive influence on poorly
informed persons is made by disseminating knowledge. In this respect the
experience of the United States is worthy of attention and could be
borrowed by the Russian Federation. For as long as a quarter of a century,
preschool children, especially, the ones who attend day care centers have
been educated that any medicines, including drug-bearing ones are harmful
for their health, if they are taken without a doctor's prescription and the
knowledge of the exact dose. To achieve a more vivid effect an album for
coloring pictures featuring narcotics and health is used.
In Australia, there are centers for preventing drug abuse where school
students between 5 and 12 years old have 7 lessons a year forming a certain
attitude to narcotics, as well as an awareness of the danger of drug
addiction.
The influence on persons who are aware of the harm of narcotics and do
not take drugs can be achieved by "tearing them away," so to speak, from
their surroundings where drugs may be used or are used already. This can be
accomplished by conversation with individuals, their families, and
colleagues living in similar environment.
Direct impact prophylactic measures are expected to influence persons
taking drugs, including drug addicts. This impact brings or may bring
positive results when medical treatment is combined with the social
rehabilitation.
Postpenitentiary measures should influence persons who have served
prison terms for drug-related offenses by continuous treatment of drug
addiction, securing the results of previous treatment, and neutralizing a
possible unfavorable influence of their immediate surroundings, finding
jobs and also forestalling the repetition of drug-related offenses.
International, National and Regional Measures:
In terms of their level, the measures to prevent drug abuse can be
divided into international, national and regional.
International measures are the ones, which are carried out on an
international scale. They include a number of earlier listed special
measures to prevent drug abuse. Apart from that, they also include measures
carried out by the international agencies and organizations, such as 1)
creation of programs to prevent the advancement of narcotics; 2) assistance
to countries in implementation of the conventions provisions; 3) providing
assistance in bringing national legislation in line with the conventions;
4) training officers specializing in actions against narcotics for law-
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
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