Romania: Drug-related offenses reduced as new criminal code is enforced

This year, the Romanian drug law was amended in the direction of decriminalisation, though the law still retains imprisonment and fines as an option, while penalties generally discriminate against the poor and socially disadvantaged.

You probably didn’t know – even most Romanian don’t – but the days when a drug user could be convicted for up to 3 years in jail just for a joint, or between 2 and 5 years for a dose of heroin, are gone. At the same time, dealers were facing dreary sentences between 10 and 20 years, or between 15 and 25 years in prison for international trafficking.

This has been the case until recently, but things changed significantly with the new Penal Code introduced in February 2014. With a little luck, drug users can now get away with paying a fine or doing community service. While the law states that the penalty for possession of drugs for personal use is between 3 months' and 2 years' imprisonment or a fine, community service can replace or accompany either the fine or the jail sentence. The fine is not a mere civil penalty, but constitutes criminal punishment and therefore comes with a criminal record. However, quite often the police look the other way when minor drug use is involved, or even small scale trafficking, such as a few marijuana cigarettes, a few doses of heroin, or unknown substances in little plastic bags; or they deal with users by fining them for civil offences, such as disturbing the peace, which users readily accept instead of harsher criminal penalties. As for community service, it is usually conducted in the domain of public sanitation, snow-clearance, park maintenance, helping the elderly, or environment protection. Work is restricted to eight hours a day, and can only be done during the daytime on working days.

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