Duma rejects criminal liability for drug abuse
The lower house of the Russian parliament rejected on Friday a draft from the Liberal Democratic Party to make drug abusers criminally liable.
http://en.rian.ru 26/03/2010
The draft proposed a maximum one year prison sentence for drug addicts on their first drug-related trial and up to three years for further drug abuse.
"Those who seek help at a clinic of their own accord would be freed from having committed a criminal act," Zhirinovsky said.
He said drug takers were prosecuted by law in the Soviet Union which is why drug abuse was not such a pressing problem then as it is now.
According to official data there are currently around 6 million drug addicts in Russia.
