16 June 2004 16:38
Police in Russian region take new steps against drugs promotion
[Presenter] The fight against promoting drugs is continuing in Russia. A kind of cannabis censorship may appear in
the near future if the police continue to work with such zeal. So far encyclopaedias and botanical books with detailed
illustrations have not been accused breaking the law, although neck straps for mobile phones featuring pictures of
cannabis leaves are already being withdrawn from sale. Police in Adygeya are leading the way. [Police shown raiding
mobile phone shop and reading rights to employees]
[Correspondent] The sales assistant in the mobile phone shop is told why the camouflaged people [law-enforcement
officers] are visiting. There are already enough other inspection agencies and we don't sell drugs, the shop worker
says. You might not sell them, but you promote them, the police respond. There are cannabis leaves not palm leaves on
the mobile phone straps.
Although this is not yet a sentence - the anti-monopoly committee will make a decision - the goods are confiscated.
Article 6.3 of the Administrative Code treats this kind of retailing as the promotion and advertisement of drugs. The
punishment is between 400 and 500 minimum wages.
In the above case guilt remains to be proved, but the label on this Czech vodka speaks for itself. The cannabis
infusion called Cannabis is just one big promotion. The pack contains both shot glasses and a hookah. The drink contains
cannabis seeds. It is two things in one: alcoholic and narcotic intoxication is guaranteed.
The consignment is not very large. The police confiscate three samples of each type. Only a few bottles were sold
during the whole time it was on sale. The police say that the price was too high so people decided to make the cocktail
at home.
[Mikhail Shtager, department head at Adygeya branch of Federal Service for Control over the Trafficking of Narcotics
and Psychotropic Substances] Similar operations are currently being held across the country. Books and so forth have
been confiscated. Here in Adygeya we have confiscated everything that we uncovered.
[Correspondent] The case of vodka with cannabis is familiar in other regions. Traders in similar goods have piles of
rulings by Moscow courts. In the capital the product did not raise any questions.
[Video shows police raiding shop, accessories with cannabis designs on sale, cannabis vodka, police confiscating
goods]
[NTV] |
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