Drug abuse. Tendencies and ways to overcome it

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Lawmaking measures:

It is important to revitalize government-sponsored efforts toward hammering out a single anti-narcotics legislation, matching international standards, including 1) a law on the `control over the legal distribution of narcotics, strong substances, precursors, and 2) on the responsibility for such offences as: drugs extortion; illegal actions with government-owned chemicals and special equipment and their use to make drugs; 3) organizational forms of perpetrating drug-related crimes; 4) various commercial and financial operations on money laundering.

Due to the latter, it is necessary to give law enforcement agencies more authority to get from banks and other institutions and organizations necessary data on accounts and other financial transactions of persons, suspected of unlawful actions with narcotics.

Besides, it appears reasonable to amend the current legislation by expanding authority and creating appropriate conditions for law-enforcement agencies (police) to a) conduct searches of luggage, including carry-on luggage, of passengers at all kinds of transport facilities, b) check controlled shipments and cargoes, c) check state purchases of drugs, d) conduct medical examinations of citizens, e) set a more flexible procedure of placing drug addicts for medical treatment, f) a more flexible system of administrative detaining and arresting of citizens, and g) to practice more extensively the protocol form of pre-trial materials preparation.

Organizational Measures at Government Level:

It would be expedient to carry out a number of organizational anti-narcotics measures at government level. They include:

- creating a stable system of information for regional law-enforcement agencies about treaties, agreements, and protocols, concluded and signed by countries, governments, and departments, about procedures and requirements of signing such documents, about Interpol National Central Bank's opportunities to combat specific types of crimes, and about requests' formulation requirements;

- putting the NCB on round-the-clock duty to meet local requests;

- speeding up the creation of effective border customs control and adopting measures against the use of a country as a transit point to ship drugs to other regions;

- toughening control over the production and supplies of drug-bearing substances in chemical pharmacology and other areas, where they are used for lawful purposes.

A positive solution should be found to the issue of opening more medical centers, improving anti-drug addiction therapy, and manufacturing and acquiring more effective medicines, which involves much government spending and a search for sources of funding. Simultaneously, special government-financed short and long term comprehensive medical programs should be worked out and put into effect to block the consumption and sale of drugs; really re-socialize drug addicts; stop AIDS from spreading; spare no effort toward revitalizing non-governmental organizations' activity, aimed at reducing the demand for narcotics.

Measures to Train Personnel:

One should bear in mind that in most cases, the first contact with drug addicts, that is with seriously ill people, is made by the officers of law enforcement (police) agencies who have neither practical nor psychological skills of dealing with ill persons. But even a physician is required alongside professional knowledge, to display ethical norms, which quite often are crucial for the recovery of mentally imbalanced patients. For this reason, it is especially urgent and important to draw up teaching aides and methodological recommendations for law- enforcement agencies, not only on the tactics but also on the ethics of dealing with drug addicts, especially young ones. It is necessary to put the experience, gained by the police in anti-drug addiction prophylactic actions, into practice as soon as possible.

Polish scientists identify three groups of young drug addicts: 1) those who can but do not want to stop using drugs; 2) those who would like to give up drugs but cannot do so on their own; 3) and those who do not want and can not drop the ruinous dependence.

The principles of treating representatives of each of these groups differ considerably. The experience of drug addicts' treatment shows that two opposite trends dominate in the systems accepted up to date. The first prefers tolerance, partnership, and medical treatment, excluding coercion and punishment. The second envisages tough regimentation toward drug addicts. However, there is one requirement that is common for both systems - indispensable compliance with the principle of voluntary consent.

Реферат опубликован: 14/12/2009