| Author (Corporate) | European Commission |
|---|---|
| Series Title | COM |
| Series Details | (2013) 618 final (17.9.13) |
| Publication Date | 17/09/2013 |
| Content Type | Policy-making |
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Illicit drug trafficking and drug abuse are major threats to the health and safety of individuals and to societies in the EU. They affect the social and economic fabric and undermine the quality of life of individuals, as well as the security of the Member States. Although consumption of substances controlled under the UN Conventions on drugs, such as cocaine, ecstasy or cannabis (‘controlled drugs’), seems to have stabilised in recent years, albeit at high levels, a major challenge is to address new substances that emerge on the market at a rapid speed. New psychoactive substances, which imitate the effects of controlled drugs and are often marketed as legal alternatives to them because they are not subjected to similar control measures, and which have numerous uses in the industry, are increasingly available in the Union. Between 1997 and 2012, Member States reported around 290 substances, with more than one new substance notified every week in 2012. The number of reported substances tripled between 2009 and 2012 (from 24 to 73). A growing number of individuals, in particular young people, consume new psychoactive substances. However, these substances can cause harms to individuals’ health and safety, and can put burdens on society, just like controlled drugs do. The risks that new psychoactive substances can pose have prompted national authorities to submit them to various restriction measures. However, such national restriction measures have limited effectiveness, since these substances can be moved freely in the internal market - around 80% of the substances notified were detected in more than one Member State. To effectively reduce the availability of harmful new psychoactive substances, which pose severe health, social and safety risks to individuals and society, and to deter trafficking in these substances as well as the involvement of criminal organisations in their production or distribution, along with controlled drugs, it is necessary to cover new psychoactive substances by criminal law provisions. Council Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA of 25 October 2004 provides a common approach to the fight against illicit drug trafficking. It sets out minimum common rules on the definition of drug trafficking offences and sanctions to avoid that problems arise in cooperation between the judicial authorities and law enforcement agencies of Member States, owing to the fact that the offence or offences in question are not punishable under the laws of both the requesting and the requested State. However, while these provisions apply to substances covered by the UN Conventions and to synthetic drugs submitted to control under Joint Action 97/396/JHA of 16 June 1997, they do not apply to new psychoactive substances. In order to streamline and clarify the legal framework applicable to drugs, the most harmful new psychoactive substances should be covered by the same criminal law provisions as substances controlled under the UN Conventions. It is, therefore, necessary to extend the scope of application of Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA to new psychoactive substances subjected to control measures as well as to those substances subjected to permanent market restriction measures. |
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| Source Link | http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:618:FIN |
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| Subject Categories | Health, Justice and Home Affairs |
| Countries / Regions | Europe |
