The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation submitted to the State Duma a draft law to reduce the term of imprisonment for possession and possession of drugs in large quantities, especially in large quantities without the purpose of sale. document published On the website of the House of Representatives of Parliament.
Changes are proposed to Article 228 of the Criminal Code. Now the second part of this article (unlawful possession, storage, transport, production and manufacture of drugs on a large scale without the purpose of sale) provides for imprisonment for a period of three to 10 years. The Supreme Court proposes reducing the maximum sentence to five years and abolishing the minimum sentence.
In addition, changes are planned to be made to Part III of the same article, which addresses the possession and storage of medicines on a particularly large scale. It provides for imprisonment for a period ranging between 10 and 15 years; The Supreme Court proposes to reduce the maximum period to 10 years and eliminate the minimum.
The explanatory note notes that under Part 2 of Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, actual imprisonment is allocated to only a third of convicts, and maximum sentences are determined “extremely rarely.” Also, the conditions stipulated in Part Three of the same article “are not required in judicial practice and limit the possibility of allocating the penalty taking into account the specific circumstances of the case and data related to the identity of the defendant.”
The draft law also proposes granting those convicted for the first time on charges of purchasing and storing drugs on a large scale, “recognized as drug addicts,” the right to obtain, by decision of the court, a postponement of the implementation of their prison sentence, and obliging them to undergo treatment or rehabilitation. “Crimes in the field of drug trafficking without the purpose of selling them are often committed by drug addicts who need treatment (their illness is the factor that motivates them to commit the crime). Providing these convicts with the opportunity to undergo treatment for drug addiction will be one of the important means of socially rehabilitating the individual and preventing the commission of repeated crimes,” the Supreme Court said.