Poland's drug law

The initiative of the Ombudsman for Drug Dependent People was established in 2009 by The Polish Drug Policy Network and the Association of Patients in Substitution Treatment JUMP'93. The impetus to start with the Ombudsman's activity was an urgent need to ensure that drug addicts and users would receive decent legal aid and information on issues which were vitally important for them. There was also a need to improve the situation of drug treatment in Poland.

This is the second edition of the report written by Agnieszka Sieniawska and Jacek Charmast of the office of the Ombudsman for Drug Dependent People. Specific criminal cases discussed in the first report clearly demonstrated the gap between the objectives of the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction, and the practice of its enforcement. Analysis of the cases included in this report shows that despite the announced changes, law enforcement continues to produce criminals prosecuting recreational users and addicted people instead of effectively eliminate drug dealers.

It is difficult to resist the temptation to abuse laws that criminalize the possession of minor amounts of drugs. This law makes it easy, simple, almost effortless to obtain excellent statistical results.This applies to police, prosecutors and the judiciary. The report clearly shows that despite the announced changes, the courts still deal with the cases of possession of small amounts of marijuana. People get labels of criminals, obtain criminal records, the prison become overcrowded.

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