Russia's New Drug Law in Effect: No Jail for Drug Users, Greater Penalties for Drug Traffickers
3 December 2004
As of today, Russian drug users and people in possession of small amounts of illegal drugs no longer face any jail time. Under previous Russian law, smoking marijuana or being caught with as little as one-tenth of a gram of it could bring a three-year prison sentence. But in a bald reversal of the Putin government's hard line against drug users enunciated in 2002, the Russian Duma approved the changes in November 2004, President Putin signed them into law in December 2004, and they go into effect today.
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