U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Drugs and Punishment

NCJ Number
111711
Author(s)
D Cotic
Date Published
1988
Length
146 pages
Annotation
This survey examines penal regulations for the illegal cultivation, production, and trade of drugs in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, including implementation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances.
Abstract
The results from 31 countries indicate that there has been a continuous and rapid change of legal provisions and a tendency to depart from some general principles of penal law. In general, there has been an extension of national jurisdiction for certain drug offenses, an expansion of criminal responsibility, an enlargement of the circle of criminally liable accomplices, and criminalization of the acquisition, possession, transfer, or laundering of proceeds derived from or used in illegal trafficking. Several modifications of procedural norms and criminal justice organization also were observed, including the expansion of expediency powers, widening of judicial powers, shifting the burden of proof to the accused, and establishment of law enforcement services and institutions with special investigative powers to enforce more effectively drug law violations. All countries consider illicit production and trafficking the most serious of drug-related crimes and provide the harshest sanctions for them. There are pronounced differences among countries with respect to drug possession and consumption. In some systems, acquisition and possession are only punishable when trafficking is the intent. There also is great diversity in sanctions with respect to the dangerousness of the drug. 7 charts.