Drug abuse: Tendencies and ways to overcome it

international trade in them, supply and confiscation of drugs. The

Committee also points to the shortcomings in the arrangement of control

functions and offers recommendations as to how these shortcomings can be

dealt with. If need be, the Committee has the right to invite

representatives of any country to its meetings.

Upon getting the information that the target set by the Convention is

endangered in any country due to its failure to abide by the Convention's

decisions, the Committee has the right to ask for an explanation and also

to recommend adjustment measures. If a particular government fails to

provide a satisfactory explanation or to accept the adjustment measures

proposed by the Committee, the problem can be brought to the attention of

the involved parties, of the Council or the Commission. The involved party

may be recommended to stop the importation or exportation of narcotics to

given countries or territories for a specific period of time until the

Committee recognizes that the situation in that country has become

satisfactory.

The Committee is endowed with the right to impose restrictions, under

certain conditions, on the manufacture and import of drugs.

Since a large volume of information is available at the Committee it is

able to prepare reports, publish them and forward them to the Council to be

sent to the parties concerned. In these reports the Committee can touch

upon any issues connected with drugs and inform its readers about newly

passed decisions. For example, in its report of 1989 (Vienna) the Committee

called on the governments of all countries to strictly observe the

Convention's provisions, to submit statistical accounts about the available

quantities of narcotics and trade in them, among other related data.

To avoid alternative versions and form a single understanding, the

Uniform Convention establishes identical definitions of special terminology

related to drugs.

Drug-related Terminology as Established by the Uniform Convention:

For example, according to the Convention a "narcotic substance" is any

of the substances included in List I and List II regardless of whether it

is synthetic or natural. Lists I, II, III, and IV are enumerations of

narcotics or drug-bearing preparations and are supplements to the

Convention in which possible changes may be made from time to time in

accordance with the procedures established by the Convention.

Definitions are also given for cannabis and its plant and resin,

cocaine shrub, coca leaves, opium, opium poppy and poppy straw.

Significantly, the international understanding of the word

"cultivation" pertaining to drugs covers only the cultivation of opium

poppy, cocaine brush or the cannabis plant. It should be mentioned at this

point that the 1988 UN Convention defines this term differently. But this

will be discussed below.

The term "illegal trafficking" means the cultivation of or any action

relating to the sale of narcotics in violation of the Convention's

decisions. The term "importation" and "exportation" mean the physical

shipment of narcotics crossing the boundaries of one country to another or

from one territory to another within one and the same country. The term

"territory" means any part of a country defined as a separate unit for the

purpose of applications of the system of drug importation certificates and

drug exportation permits to it.

The term "manufacture" implies (with the exception of production) all

the processes that pertain to obtaining narcotic substances, including

refining or turning one narcotic into another.

The term "production" means the separation of opium, coca, cannabis

leaves and cannabis resin from the plants, which they are obtained from.

The term "preparation" means a hard or liquid mixture containing a

narcotic substance.

The term "storage stocks" is used in relation to the amount of

narcotics which are available in a particular country or on its territory

and meant to be used for medical or scientific purposes, for exportation or

for the needs of various pharmacists, authorized traders and specialists or

institutions where medical or scientific research is carried out.

Included in this term is also the notion "special storage stocks" which

is used to describe the amount of narcotics available within a country or a

territory of that country and put at the disposal of its government to be

used for special purposes or in case of an emergency.

The Uniform Convention introduces a number of specific restrictions and

bans and a special procedure for the cultivation of drug-bearing plants.

The most important restrictions are those concerning the cultivation of

opium poppy, cocaine shrub or cannabis plant.

Special provisions are envisaged in the first place in relation to

opium. Government-run institutions (one or several) should be set up to

deal with the cultivation of opium poppy and with opium production. They

should have the right to determine areas and sizes of fields, and issue

licenses and permits for land plots where a certain amount of opium poppy

can be grown and a certain amount of opium-produced. These government-run

institutions should be endowed with the exclusive right to buy opium poppy

crops from farmers and to import, export, conclude wholesale trade deals

and maintain storage opium stocks (with the exception of medicinal opium

and preparations from it.)

The responsibilities of persons are outlined who have permits

(licenses) to grow drug-bearing plants, to turn over crops of opium poppy

only to the institution which they had received their permits from. Any

departures from the established procedures are qualified as violations of

the law. The Convention permits narcotics to be made only at government-run

enterprises or in accordance with licenses issued to persons with necessary

qualifications.

The Convention introduces uniform rules for storing narcotics to ensure

that the substances are maintained in proper condition. It envisages the

responsibility of member-states for taking precautionary measures to

prevent the inappropriate use of narcotics or the possibility for them to

become part of illegal trafficking in cases when, for example, they are

kept in airliners' first aid compartments.

Narcotics can be stored only legally. Their producers are not allowed

to keep them in quantity exceeding the established norms. A compulsory

registration system is established under which the quantity of each

prepared, acquired or used drug should be recorded. Drugs can be stored for

no more than 2 years.

The signatories of the Convention are obliged to take specially

stipulated measures to combat illegal drug trafficking. The Convention

therefore grants the contracting parties the right to control the work of

persons and enterprises engaged, on a legal basis, in the cultivation,

manufacture, storage and use of narcotics and of those engaged in the

drugs' exportation, importation, distribution and trade.

The participating countries, besides, have the following duties: to

take steps at home towards coordinating preventive and repressive measures

against illegal drug trafficking; to help each other in carrying out

campaigns against illegal drug trafficking; to closely cooperate with

competent international bodies in carrying out coordinated actions for the

purpose of combating narcotics and also to ensure an effective

international cooperation and a quick transfer of legal documents for

launching prosecution.

Punishability of Drug-related crimes:

The Uniform Convention institutes the punishment for drug-related

crimes and obliges member-countries to take specific actions when crimes

that are recognized as punishable by the Convention are committed

intentionally. Serious crimes should be punished by imprisonment or some

other form of deprivation of freedom. Intentional crimes which are

punishable include: the cultivation and production, manufacture,

extraction, preparation, storage, offer, offer with commercial intentions,

distribution, purchase, sale, delivery on any conditions, drug-pushing,

dispatch, transit re-dispatch, shipping, and importation and exportation of

narcotics. Each of these crimes, if committed in more than one country,

must be considered as a separate crime. Intentional complicity in any of

these crimes, participation in a community with the aim to commit or

attempt to commit a crime, preparatory actions or financial operations

related to the above cited crimes must also be recognized as punishable

actions. Sentences passed by foreign courts for such crimes must be taken

into account when considering recidivism.

The Convention recommends that any extradition treaty should make these

crimes subject to extradition.

Yet while instituting punishment for a long list of drug-related crimes

the Uniform Convention also includes a special decision on treating drug

addicts. It calls on the member-states to create conditions conducive to

providing them with rehabilitation and restoring their ability to work. If

economic opportunities are available in the country, appropriate conditions

should be created providing preventive treatment to drug addicts.

The UN Convention of 1988:

The 1988 Convention regulates questions relating to the illegal

trafficking of drugs and psycho tropes. The aim of this Convention is to

promote cooperation between the contracting parties so as to more

effectively solve various problems involving worldwide illegal drug

trafficking, curtail its size and prevent its grave consequences. The

Convention particularly emphasizes the danger of the proliferation of

illegal drug trafficking and the involvement of children in it. It points

to the need to ensure control of easily accessible substances and those,

which are used to make narcotics illegally.

Special attention is paid to the need to improve international

cooperation to block illegal drug trafficking at sea. The Convention

envisages steps to prevent a certain number of offenses.

The contracting parties are expected to adopt necessary legislative and

organizational steps. The following provisions seem to be the most

interesting.

The Notion of Illegal Drug Trafficking:

Firstly, there is a provision, bearing the form of a recommendation,

for member states that national legislation should recognize certain

premeditated actions included by the Convention into the notion of "illegal

trafficking" as common crimes. Actions that violate the 1961 Convention

(with amendments) include: production, manufacture, preparation, offer for

sale, distribution, sale, delivery on any terms, middleman services,

shipping, transit shipping, transportation, and importation or exportation

of any narcotic. Other actions which should be recognized as crimes are the

cultivation of specially indicated narcotic-bearing plants in order to turn

out drugs; storing or purchasing any narcotic for illegal trafficking;

making, transporting or distributing equipment, materials or substances for

the purpose of illegal cultivation, production or manufacture of narcotics;

organization, guidance or financing of any offenses listed above;

conversion or transfer of property obtained from the above mentioned

offenses in order to conceal or cover up an illegal source of property or

in order to help a person who is taking part in committing the listed

offenses to evade responsibility for his actions; concealment or secrecy of

the true nature of the source, whereabouts, arrangement method, transfer of

the rights in relation to property or its belonging if it is known that

this property is gained as a result of the listed offenses; possession of

equipment or materials needed to illegally cultivate, produce or make any

narcotic; public encouragement or incitement of other persons by any means

to commit any of the above-mentioned offenses; participation or involvement

in a criminal collusion in order to commit the mentioned offenses, as well

as accomplice, incitement, assistance or advice during their commission;

and intentional storage, acquisition or cultivation of any narcotic for

personal use in defiance of the provisions of the 1961 Convention (with

amendments).

Secondly, there is a provision concerning matters of responsibility and

punishment of people convicted of dangerous drug-related crimes. This

provision recommends such sanctions as imprisonment or the deprivation of

freedom, as well as additional measures in the form of rehabilitation,

restoration of the ability to work, or social reintegration with subsequent

supervision.

Controlled Deliveries:

Thirdly, there is a provision about the use of controlled deliveries at

the international level based on mutual accords. Controlled delivery is a

method under which exportation, transportation or importation of illegal or

suspicious batches of drugs are allowed on the territory of one or several

countries with the knowledge and under the supervision of competent

agencies in order to identify the participants in these offenses.

Most norms covered by international conventions are part of the laws of

the Russian Federation, and more of these norms may be registered in the

future provided there are suitable conditions.

Measures to Prevent Drug Money Laundering:

There are two documents, which have been mentioned earlier that are

very important in controlling drug abuse because they affect the "sore

points" of narco-business. Both of these documents need to be applied in

the Russian Federation. One, from 12th December 1988, is a statement by the

Committee on Banking Rules and Banking Supervision. Its aim is to prevent

the criminal use of the banking system for laundering money gained from the

trade in drugs. The other is the decision by the heads of state and

government of the 7 leading industrial countries and by the European

Commission Chairman. Under this decision taken at the 15th Economic Summit

in Paris in July 1989, a Special Operations Group on financial issues was

set up.

It must also be noted that the past few years have seen the convocation

of numerous official and unofficial conferences, symposia and meetings of

experts specializing in combating drug abuse, including one held in 1996 in

Baku. They all worked out and recommended for implementation various

measures to control narcotics.

Par. 2. Tendencies in the World Community's Reaction to Drug Abuse.

The world community counteracts the negative tendencies of drug abuse.

This can be clearly seen in the materials of the world fora and in the

international legal acts.

The Overriding Tendency of Combating Drug Abuse:

The overriding tendency is the expanding scale, and improvement of

activities, as well as of the international legal regulations combating

drug abuse. The core of this tendency is expressed in the following

trajectory from the study of drug abuse, and exerting influence by the

world community through establishing international control over legitimate

distribution and consumption of drugs, to the adoption and implementation

of the increasingly diversified, detailed, rationalized and tough measures

combating illegal drug trafficking and criminal drug money laundering.

These measures are being worked out by international agencies and

organizations and are aimed at fully blocking the spread of narcotics.

This overall tendency can be seen in several of its more concrete

manifestations, such as bringing the problem of narcotics to the forefront;

expanding the sphere of the international legal regulation by amending

existing measures and approving new international legal norms; making

actions against drug abuse more purposeful by revealing its most vulnerable

spots and controlling them by using new, more perfected international legal

norms; ensuring a more universal, unified and standardized understanding of

international legal terms regulating narcotics and; adopting international

legal norms that pave the way for a real opportunity to combat narcotics;

bringing international and national legal acts in line concerning actions

against narcotics in the process of nations joining international legal

acts and ratifying them; increasing the number of countries taking part in

international conferences on actions against narcotics and the number of

countries joining international legal acts and setting up and expanding the

functions of specialized international agencies that work to combat

narcotics.

Bringing to the Foreground Problems of Combating Drug Abuse:

Nearly 80 years since the convocation of the Shanghai Opium Commission

in 1909, the first official body on the international scene that had drawn

attention to the problems of narcotics, its regulation and gradual

restriction, public attention to the problem has been steadily growing in

proportion to the rise in the degree of public danger and the spread of

narcotics. This is manifested by the increasing number of conferences,

meetings, and symposia that concentrate on working out and adopting various

international legal acts regulating measures to combat narcotics along with

producing recommendations aimed at improving these types of measures and

their application.

Expanding the Sphere of International Legal Regulation:

Expanding the sphere of international legal regulation means that each

successive forum and each new international legal act against narcotics has

focused on such areas of drug abuse, which have not been previously subject

of international regulation.

In particular, the 1912 Hague Convention was the first to define types

of narcotics - raw opium, smoke opium, medicinal opium, morphine and some

others, which were placed under international control. Later this list was

expanded. Under the Convention of 19th February 1925, some additional raw

materials such as coca leaves, raw cocaine and Indian hemp (cannabis) were

included. Also any other drug capable of causing harmful affects, according

to the finding of a competent body, could be added to the list. Under the

Protocol of 19th November 1948 the list was further extended by synthetic

drugs that had come into being by that time and had not been regulated by

any of the previously adopted international legal acts. The 1961 Uniform

Convention contained a much longer list of narcotics allowing for further

subsequent changes and additions.

The 1912 Hague Convention obliged the participating countries to pass

national legislation controlling the production, distribution, importation

and exportation of raw opium as well as measures scaling down production,

domestic trade and consumption of smoke opium, banning its import and

export. The Agreement of 11th February 1925 envisaged setting up a

government monopoly for opium production and monopoly associations for

opium trade. The Geneva Convention of 19th February 1925 introduced new

measures, such as exercising control over the activities of persons who

held permits to manufacture, import, export, sell, distribute and apply

narcotics, as well as control over the premises where these persons

practiced their trade. The Convention also limited the number of ports,

cities and other populated centers through which the import and export of

drugs was allowed, and urged the adoption of domestic legislation

qualifying violation of these provisions of the Convention as criminal

offence. The Convention of 13th July 1931 formulated the following

additional measures: extradition of criminals for committing drug-related

crimes; setting up domestic government agencies to implement the

Convention's decisions and regulations, supervision over the trade in drug-

bearing medicines, listed in the Convention, and a clamp-down on illegal

drug trafficking. The Bangkok agreement of 27th November 1931 contained

such amendments as limiting retail opium trade to government agencies only.

For persons under 21 years of age visiting opium dens, was a criminal

offence. The Convention of 26th June 1936 was the first to introduce the

word "struggle" and provided for a much wider range of criminal drug-

related offenses. Under the Protocol of 19th November 1948, the signatories

had to inform the UN about any substance that had the potential of being

abused in the future.

The 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments) broadened international

legal norms, over new aspects of drug abuse. For example, it established a

special procedure for cultivating narcotic-bearing plants and manufacturing

narcotic substances, it established uniform rules for storing drugs. These

procedures bound the signatories to cooperate with each other and with

authorized international organizations in arranging and holding campaigns

against illegal drug trafficking, and in applying imprisonment and against

those guilty of premeditated drug-related crimes.

The 1988 UN Convention contained recommendations to define concrete

premeditated actions as crimes in national legislation. An extended list of

these crimes was included into the concept "illegal drug trafficking." The

Convention also listed such measures as medical treatment of addicts,

restoration of their working capabilities or social re-integration under

subsequent supervision. The Convention outlined recommendations on using

controlled deliveries at the international level on the basis of mutual

accords.

Purposeful Actions Against Drug Abuse:

Intensifying actions against drug abuse by revealing and attacking

vulnerable spots of narco-business through the help of new, more perfect

law as the world community increasing realized the danger of narcotics, it

displayed a growing ability to apply new international legal norms. As a

result the world community has been approving appropriate legal norms to

check the spread of narcotics. For example, on the basis of the 1912 Hague

Convention the signatories pledged to undertake measures to gradually stop

the production, domestic trade, and consumption of smoke opium, as well as

to ban its import and export. The 1988 Convention registered the provision

on controlled drug deliveries at the international level on the basis of

mutual accords. In accordance with the statement by the Committee for

Banking Rules and Banking Supervision of 12th December 1988 and the

decision of July 1989 by the heads of states and governments of the seven

leading industrial nations and by the European Commission Chairman,

measures were taken to prevent criminal use of the banking system for

laundering money obtained from drug trade.

The Universalization of Legal Norms:

The trend to ensure universalization, unification and standardization

of the international legal norms on narcotics first manifested it self in

the 1912 Hague Convention, the Convention of 19th February 1925 and the

Uniform Convention. These contained uniform lists of controlled narcotics.

The Convention of 13th July 1931 introduced the notions "production",

"refining", "processing", "reserve storage stocks", "government storage

stocks", "export-import", "cultivation", "illegal trafficking",

"territory", "manufacture", "preparation", "storage stocks", and "special

storage stocks". The 1961 Uniform Convention and the 1988 Convention

provided unified lists of socially dangerous activities, qualified as

criminal offenses.

Raising the Effectiveness of the International Legal Norms:

More and more specific and not just declarative norms ensuring

effective and lasting actions against narcotics have been introduced into

law-enforcement practice at each new stage in the international legal

regulation of narcotics. The adoption of these international legal norms is

paving the way for a real opportunity to oppose drug abuse.

Whereas the 1909 Shanghai Opium Commission failed to generate any

constructive measures against narcotics, the 1912 Hague Convention managed

to define the kinds of narcotics to be placed under international control.

The Agreement of 11th February 1925 provided for the establishment of

monopoly institutions to deal with opium and for the transfer of the smoke

opium production to a government monopoly. The Convention of 19th February

1925 extended the list of controlled narcotics and introduced new

restrictions. Appropriate provisions of the 1931 Bangkok Agreement, the

Convention of 13th July 1931, of 26th June 1936, the Protocol of 19th

January 1948, the 1961 Uniform Convention (with amendments), the 1988 UN

Convention and documents of the European Community of 1988 and 1989 as

discussed above, have also been raising the effectiveness of the drive

against narcotics.

Bringing into Line the International and National Legal Norms:

Increasingly international and national legal norms against narcotics

are brought into line as nations sign and ratify international acts. This

leads to the mutual enrichment of the international and national legal

norms aimed at blocking narcotics. On the one hand, the world community

elevates national legal norms to international level by instituting

international legal norms. On the other hand, nations ratify international

legal acts thus adopting them as domestic legislation. International and

domestic legal norms coincide almost completely sometimes, in such areas

the list of narcotics and drug-related actions considered a criminal

offense, as well as the procedure of filing criminal charges against

persons committing drug-related crimes, and their extradition.

The Rise in the Number of Countries Taking Part in International

Conferences:

There has been an increase in the number of nations taking part in

international conferences on narcotics and in the number of nations signing

international legal acts. This is evident in the fact that 13 nations took

part in the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909, whereas 73 nations attended

the New York conference, which adopted the Uniform Convention in 1961.

Since then, many nations have ratified the Uniform Convention and the 1988

UN Convention and more are going to sign them.

Setting up Specialized Agencies:

The world community has created and keeps expanding the functions of

the specialized agencies dealing with narcotics, such as Permanent Central

Committee on Drugs of 1925, the Special Commission of 1928, the Control

Commission of 1931, the Commission on Drugs of the UN Economic and Social

Council of 1961 and the UN International Committee on Drug Control, and the

special operations group on financial matters of 1989 dealing with money

laundering resulting from drug trafficking. These agencies handle more and

more functions in response to the ever more sophisticated dissemination of

drugs, and money laundering resulting from drug trafficking.

The reaction of the world community to narcotics examined above shows a

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

concern. In this context the approval of the national program for combating

drug addiction in the Russian Federation is a necessary step towards

improving the work of preventing narcotics and drug-related crimes, along

with other offenses.

Chapter V. Organized Measures to Counteract Narcotics

Par. 1. General Provisions for Counteracting Narcotics

The multiplicity of drug abuse necessitates a joint combative effort

involving a large number of participants who have a broad spectrum of

powers and who will act simultaneously in different directions, performing

a variety of functions. The joining of anti-narcotism forces can be

achieved through a flexible system of measures against this deplorable

social phenomenon.

Organizing a System of Measures Against Narcotics:

The multifaceted nature of drug abuse necessitates forming a single

united front with many participants acting simultaneously in different

directions, performing various functions with a wide spectrum of measures.

This can be achieved by the mobile and flexible system of measures and

means. In terms of overcoming drug abuse, organization is a system of

measures to combat drug abuse and means of their implementation with regard

to the division of the spheres of activity, responsibilities and

hierarchical order.

Based on the social and economic reality, actions against narcotics

should comply with the national and international norms of law and with the

scientifically based principles of management. They should take account of

the new developments in medicine, pharmaceutics, psychology, psychiatry,

pedagogy, sociology, instrument building, and have substantial legislative,

material, informational, and research backing. They must have clear

parameters of time and space and, most importantly, professionally trained

personnel.

At the same time, the anti-narcotics strategy must reflect the irksome

particularities and complicated nature of this phenomenon as it combines

two interrelated sides - that of illness and that of crime. This defines

our approach to drug abuse as a medical, as well as a social problem and it

determines what steps and means must be chosen.

Drug Abuse as an Object of Government Action:

Narcotics-related issues, including organizational ones, cannot be

isolated either from the social, economic, political, historical,

legislative, medical, and biological problems or from other social

pathologies that call for counteraction. The definition of drug abuse as a

phenomenon of multiple factors is not therefore accidental.

Therefore, efficient counteraction requires much organization and

precisely targeted moves.

Such a stance justifies the view of drug abuse as an object for state

action.

This approach makes a broad analysis of the wide-ranging problems and

ways to solve them possible. Besides, drug abuse helps to define who the

subject (subjects) of influence are, its (their) condition and functioning,

the influence its (their) structure projects, as well as choice of goals

and function. These properties also define clear goals and a reasonable

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