The UN international program for combating drugs for the years 1994 and 1995, 1995 and 1996 comprises 298 projects featuring various aspects, directions and measures for checking the spread of drugs. 216 out of them were carried through in 1994 and 1995 and the implementation of the remaining 82 projects is underway. The total dollar amount of resources mobilized for the fulfillment of these projects is estimated at US$ 484,397,800. The sum was allocated by the UN International Antidrug Program's Fund.
The Concept of the Russian Federation government's policy on drug control, endorsed by decision No 5494 of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation on July 22nd 1993, incorporates quite a few antidrug measures from those developed by the world community and registered by international conventions and in other documents. This Concept emphasizes the measures that have been tested and are successfully utilized.
Since the system of measures against drug abuse is too complicated the discussion of its contents is related, firstly, to the general characterization of its components and, secondly, to the classification of these measures in their relation to each other.
Basic Aspects of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse:
The measures against drug abuse have some social, legal, criminological, medical, biological, political, economic, ecological, organizational and international aspects. Although these aspects have different spheres of application, they still remain interrelated. For example, measures for curing drug addicts have medical, social and legal aspects to them; measures for combating drug-related crimes have legal, criminological, social and other aspects; measures for combating money laundering have legal, social, economic, international and other aspects and so on. So, each particular aspect can be discussed only in abstract terms. This approach to the definition and description of aspects makes it possible to give a full characterization of the system of measures against drug abuse.
Social Dimension:
The social dimension is the cornerstone of all other aspects. All the antidrug measures are permeated with it. There is a correlation between the social aspect and each of the other aspects. It is either a general element in relation to something specific such as medical measures, or the whole of something, which represents a part such as criminological measures. It can also be a content when the other represents a form, as in legal measures. In short, the social aspect can be regarded as a common for all antidrug measures. Additionally there are legal measures for making those involved in drug-related crimes answerable for their actions and for intensifying the customs' control over the shipment of drugs across borders.
Legal Dimension:
The legal aspect of the measures under consideration can be seen as a totality of legal norms including international conventions against drugs and determining the degree of a judicial responsibility for them, mainly, criminal and administrative; secondly, regulating various legal relationships arising from drug use, thirdly, ensuring a compulsory treatment for drug addicts who try to avoid it and, fourthly, referring to these or other substances as narcotics.
Criminological Dimension:
The criminological aspect comprises measures aiming to overcome narco-crime, as a totality of drug-related crimes. These measures aim to study, analyze and sum up the structure and dynamics of these crimes and their latency. In addition, they aim to establish the causal complex of the given crime and determine the content, nature and direction of actions aimed at removing or neutralizing the causes conducive to the commitment of drug-related crimes. Thirdly, they aim to disclose and fix typical features, traits and qualities of an individual guilty of committing this or that crime. Lastly, they aim to develop methods for preventing drug-related crimes.
Medical Dimension:
The medical (biological) aspect involves the improvement of narcological aid and methods for curing drug addicts, the need to increase the level of professional medical training for those engaged in treating addicts and persons taking drugs without a doctor's prescription and the development of new medicines and medical equipment for treating addicts.
Political Dimension:
The political aspect involves combating narco-business, which tries to undermine the foundations of state power, weaken the entire machinery of state and diminish the nation's trust in the government.
Some juridical works make it a point that organized crime opposes legal actions of top government bodies not only by committing crimes but also by bending administration officials to the will of criminal associations so that they could protect criminal activities.
The resistance of narco-business to government lawful actions can result in attempts to undermine the foundations of state and in the re-orientation and distortion of any country's policy. So, central to the political aspect of measures against narco-business is blocking the influence of drug dealers on the national policy by barring nomination of corrupt officials to key posts in the government.
Economic Dimension:
There are two facets- retrospective and perspective of the economic aspect of measures against drug abuse. The retrospective facet, on the one hand, involves direct expenses of the state to combat narcotics, and, on the other, the lost benefits to citizens as a result of the spread of drug addiction.
Direct expenses include sizeable resources taken out from the state budget to set up and maintain various medical and educational centers for handicapped children, including those who inherited health problems from their parents suffering from drug addiction. In addition this includes expenses to support internal affairs agencies, customs officers engaged in combating the proliferation of drugs, production of special equipment for identifying drugs, as well as production of medicines for drug users. Finally, the direct expenses are used to promote international cooperation in joint antidrug actions with the United Nations Organization, Interpol and other international agencies and carry out research in the field of medicine, psychiatry, psychology and law, and to conduct an antidrug education.
The cost to society is revealed in an increase in the number of physically handicapped and mentally retarded people, victims of narcotics. In the long run this leads to a curtailment of society's physical and intellectual potential as a whole, such as lower standards in education and labor productivity. This, in turn, causes a reduction in the amount of material and other benefits produced by society and of resources for various government-run programs. There is also an increase in the number of cases of accidents in industry and, as a consequence the increasing failure to meet the output targets.
It is therefore essential to develop economic levers to oppose narco-business, including the money laundering. This has been poorly done so far, as no economic measures for combating narcotics have been developed and applied in practice. These tasks require an independent study by economists and lawyers.
Ecological Dimension:
The ecological dimension of measures against drug abuse is linked to the legal regulation that puts restrictions on the preservation and dissemination of drug-bearing plants. This amounts to a ban on their cultivation and destruction of the fields without any damage to the environment. The cultivation of such plants is expected to be limited to specially allotted areas where drug-bearing plants can be sown for medical purposes only.
International Dimention:
The international dimention of measures against drug abuse is manifested in various legislative, and law enforcement measures at the international level.
In sum, this system of measures covers a totality of numerous, diverse, complementary and carefully outlined programs that have social, legal, criminological, medical, economic, ecological, organizational and international dimensions.
Par. 2. Classification of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse
The essence of the system of measures to overcome drug abuse can be understood by their classification in view of the diversity of these measures. By establishing their different categories and distributing them into various groups, this classification would make it possible to give each measure its own niche, to define its boundaries and its relationship to other measures. This classification makes it possible to determine the degree of each measure's significance and its priority in terms of its practical implementation.
It is important to group them by contents, form, level, subject of application, and type. As for legal measures, they should be grouped in accordance with different branches of law.
The Content of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse:
The measures to overcome drug abuse carried out by the UN Commission on Drugs of the UN Economic and Social Council, by the UN International Committee on Drug Control and by other international agencies can be grouped into the following categories: analytical, organizational, training and educational, research, technical, medical, economic, financial, international law, preventive, monitoring, legislative, and criminal.
Analytical component is needed in order to be able to make use of a complex system of collecting and assessing data about drug abuse, to evaluate the extent of the illegal use of drugs in different countries worldwide, and to make data available on the seizure of large quantities of narcotics to interested parties.
Organizational component of measures is aimed at setting up international agencies to control drugs and to combat drug trade; assisting countries in developing national policies on such control; supporting projects, promoting national law enforcement agencies; defining direction of programs and ensuring the organizational backing of such programs; estimating the amount of illegal cultivation of drug-bearing plants in areas difficult and dangerous to access. Governmental measures should include adoption and fulfillment of national programs to overcome drug abuse by forming special law-enforcement, medical and other institutions, as well as special services and squads to combat drug trade; taking stock of lands used to cultivate drug-bearing plants; arranging control over the production, storage, consumption, an shipments of drugs, especially across national borders, as well as over the actions for pharmaceutical and medical centers.
The training and educational component includes educating specialists in law-enforcement agencies, mass media, narcological centers, and social services.
The research component aims to define and analyze data on drug abuse, to work out recommendations for overcoming it, to set up and run special research labs, and to find new ways of ending drug addiction.
The technical component includes identifying drugs, designing equipment for special labs, developing remote control devices to spot fields of drug-bearing crops.
The medical component of measures is: to promote a system of rehabilitative treatment for drug users; to choose appropriate curative programs; and work on methods to reduce the spread of infectious diseases among drug users.
The economic component consists chiefly in funding various programs and projects, combating drug abuse, supporting programs reducing demand for drugs and their supply, encouraging and supporting populations which had switched to cultivating farm crops on territories where drug-bearing plants had been grown previously.
The financial component involves measures against money laundering. Financial operations by drug moguls aimed at making their earnings legal are the most vulnerable part for the criminals. In view of this, the Committee for Banking Rules and Banking Supervision issued a statement on December 12th, 1988 that calls for preventing criminal uses of the banking system for laundering cash obtained from drug trafficking. It requires that the international banking community use extreme discretion while identifying clients. The statement also calls for more cooperation with judicial systems and police institutions in halting the legalization of cash from drug trafficking. Many countries have accepted that the principles contained in this statement are applicable to the operation of their own financial systems. In keeping with a decision of the G Seven countries and of the European Commission Chairman at the 15th economic summit in Paris in July 1989, a special operational group on financial issues was started. It produced 40 recommendations made public in February 1990. It also analyzed world financial flows, banking and financial systems and methods for laundering cash. The group found some weak spots and undertook a number of other steps. All the countries, who are members of this group and (in keeping with its recommendations) some other countries declared that they viewed participation in laundering cash as a criminal act and started special services to investigate leads on shady deals reported by subunits of the financial system. At the recommendation of the special operational group on finances, the UN International Committee on Drug Control called on all governments to pass and effectively use appropriate legislative acts to stop money laundering, to confiscate the property of drug dealers, and to consider a possibility of lifting the burden of proving the legitimacy of supposed incomes or of other property subject to confiscation under par. 7 of Article 5 of the 1988 Convention even if this may require legal or constitutional amendments.
Among the international law components of measures are those calling for reciprocal legal support of countries working to combat drug trafficking. It is essential to make extradition easier, to strengthen international cooperation against illegal drug trafficking, as well as to promote the international system of control over medicinal drugs and psychotropes.
The preventive measures are comprised of destroying illegal plantations of drug-bearing crops; preventing a transfer of drugs and of their components from the legal sphere to the illegal one; curbing illegal drug trafficking; reducing the demand for drugs; preventing the use of narcotics, particularly, in places of employment, eliminating the addicts' pads, illegal labs where narcotics are made and stores which sell them; promoting social rehabilitation of drug addicts and encouraging education campaigns against drugs.
The control component of measures envisages supervision over the following areas: the growing of drug-bearing plants, to rule out a "leakage" of the legitimately grown plants: illegal sowing and raising; production of narcotics, their acquisition, storage, stocking and dispensing; commercial trade turnover in special equipment used for producing drugs, as well as in raw materials; semi-finished products, chemicals and narcotic analogies; international parcel post deliveries as a vehicle for sending narcotics; ships sailing on the high seas and planes flying in international space; transit through customs' ports; approaches to land, sea and air borders; and deliveries of drugs for treatments at hospitals.
The most important law-making measure is that of bringing national legislation in line with international conventions on narco-business.
The common criminal measures are those applied in every country, as criminal responsibility for illegal drug trafficking, sowing and raising drug-bearing plants as well as for other socially dangerous actions related to drugs. These measures cover both punishments for the above-listed crimes and also confiscation of tools and of income earned from the illegal drug trafficking.
Other measures include improving judiciary and legal systems such as law-enforcement bodies, courts of law, penitentiary and post penitentiary programs, customs and education.
Forms of Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse:
The classification of measures to overcome drug abuse can be subdivided into two groups: those having legal form and those that do not, i.e. those which are regulated and unregulated by the law accordingly.
Measures to Overcome Drug Abuse Regulated by the Law:
The legal measures against drug abuse include compulsory educational; compulsory medical; preventive- repressive; repressive; those ensuring active participation of citizens in combating crimes, in preventing and curbing them; as well as procedural and organizational managerial. The compulsory medical, preventive repressive and repressive measures are those aimed at suppressing drug abuse and the compulsory educational-at preventing it.
Organizational managerial measures on the basis of administrative legal norms, determine in general terms, the status of curative educational and curative labor centers providing treatments to drug addicts, and the competence of law-enforcement agencies and of the court regarding the compulsory placing of drug addicts for treatment. In addition, there are also measures, containing the following provisions: to build up, on the national scale, a network of bodies and institutions whose functions will amount to combating drug-related crimes; to record the number of addicts and provide treatments to them; to promote departmental cooperation in the work of combating narcotics; many organizational managerial measures are specified by international law, registered in conventions, agreements, treaties and other documents.