Legality

Overview

A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is any chemical substance that changes brain function and results in alterations in perception, mood, or consciousness.

Psychoactive drug use can be traced to prehistory. There is archaeological evidence of the use of psychoactive substances (mostly plants) dating back at least 10,000 years, and historical evidence of cultural use over the past 5,000 years. The chewing of coca leaves, for example, dates back over 8000 years ago in Peruvian society. In some modern and ancient cultures, drug usage is seen as a status symbol. Recreational drugs are seen as status symbols in settings such as at nightclubs and parties. For example, in ancient Egypt, gods were commonly pictured holding hallucinogenic plants.

Legality

Some people also use psychoactive substances not in medical but in recreational purposes. During the 20th century, many governments across the world initially responded to the use of recreational drugs by banning them and making their use, supply, or trade a criminal offense. A notable example of this was Prohibition in the United States, where alcohol was made illegal for 13 years. In recent years, the most influential document regarding the legality of psychoactive drugs is the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, an international treaty signed in 1961 as an Act of the United Nations. Signed by 73 nations including the United States, the USSR, India, and the United Kingdom, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs established Schedules for the legality of each drug and laid out an international agreement to fight addiction to recreational drugs by combatting the sale, trafficking, and use of scheduled drugs. All countries that signed the treaty passed laws to implement these rules within their borders. However, many governments, government officials and persons in law enforcement have concluded that illicit drug use cannot be sufficiently stopped through criminalization, believing that by fighting a war on drugs the government will increase the problems of society and made them far worse. A system of regulation rather than prohibition is a less harmful, more ethical and a more effective public policy. So some countries, there has been a move toward harm reduction by health services, where the use of illicit drugs is neither condoned nor promoted, but services and support are provided to ensure users have adequate factual information readily available, and that the negative effects of their use be minimized. Such is the case of Portuguese drug policy of decriminalization, which achieved its primary goal of reducing the adverse health effects of drug abuse.

In Russia production and realization of psychoactive drugs is under strict control. The resolution of the government of Russian Federation N 681 (30.06.1998) states four lists of drugs and measures of their control:

1) A list of drugs, psychoactive substances and their precursors whose turnover is forbidden according to Russian legislation (list I):

Mescaline and its derivatives, hashish, heroin, marijuana, methadone, MMDA, opium, psilocybin, psilocin, ephedrine, etc.

2) A list of drugs, psychoactive substances and their precursors whose turnover is limited and controlled according to Russian legislation (list II):

Codeine, cocaine, morphine, ethylmorphine, omnopon, fentanyl, promedol, etc.

3) A list of psychoactive substances and whose turnover is limited with some exseptions and according to Russian legislation (list III):

Barbital, nitrazepam, diazepam, taren, etc.

4) A list of precursors whose turnover is limited and controlled according to Russian legislation (list IV):
ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, acetone, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, potassium permanganate, acetic acid, etc.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-12