13 May 2004 16:19
Russian MP says drug law changes to encourage drug dealing
A Russian lawmaker has strongly criticized amendments to the country's antinarcotics laws, which have been
approved by the cabinet months after being introduced by President Vladimir Putin. If passed, the amendments would
define precisely what counts as a dose of a particular drug. The guidelines issued by the cabinet after months of
vetting say an average dose is 0.1 g of pure heroin, 2 g of dried marijuana leaves, 14 g of cannabis, 10 g of dried
poppy plants, 70 g of raw poppy plants, 0.5 g of opium and 0.1 g of amphetamines, among other things.
Yevgeniy Royzman, a member of the State Duma security committee, told Ekho Moskvy radio the amendments would
encourage drug dealing. He said:
"This bill is a work in progress. The consequences have not been considered or thought through well enough. All
the drug users and drug dealers are jubilant, because no-one had ever expected a gift like this. That is to say, the
situation is very alarming and the nightmare scenario is that this will make it possible to sell small doses near
schools, to carry drugs in your pockets without fearing anything. An average dose of heroin is taken to be 0.1 g, so you
could carry up to a gram of heroin free of any consequences whatsoever. If you divide that into 0.1 g doses, what you
get is basic drug trade, the most sordid kind, and young people, schoolchildren, teenagers are sucked into it."
[Ekho Moskvy radio] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
