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Budget Increases at the Expense of Drug-Addicts

March 13, 2008
Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi

The   total amount of the money transferred to the national budget as a result of imposed fines from both recreational drug users and hard core addicts has totaled more than 14 million GEL. Fines are based on two articles in acting Georgian legislation.  Experts consider the courts are ordered from above to impose fines on addicts. Various allowances envisaged under the current legislation on drugs, have been removed from the draft law. It appears that the motivation is to increase fines four fold.

Current Georgian law allows the police to stop any person at any place and any place and carry out drug testing. If found to be under the influence of a controlled substance, a person is fined 500 GEL for the first occasion; the next time the drug user  is required to pay 2,000 GEL. Otherwise he or she will be sent to prison. 

Davit Otiashvili, Director of the Union for “Alternative Georgia”: “When a person is detected at least once the police always chase after him/her. Of course, the fine of 500 GEL cannot cure him; the addict still continues to use drugs and enforcement is not the problems. We are certain that the police understand the circumstances rather well. They watch out for the one time detained person with utmost zeal. The legal system acts much the same in their doling out justice.”

If a drug-addict cannot pay the fine, his property will then be seized and sold. One case in point is with Erik (we prefer to keep his surname anonymous), whose house was auctioned off at a bargain price, lower than the actual market price in order to pay his fine. His sick mother was left homeless. The official reason for the selling the property was because of the inability or unwillingness to pay a fine of 800 GEL. The drug addict was not able to pay this amount. The draft law on “Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances, Precursors and Narcological Assistance” will not exclude similar liabilities in the future and this may not be an isolated case.

After the police takes the suspected person to the lab; the latter has right to refuse to be tested. Under the current legislation nobody has the right to punish him for his refusal.

Davit Otiashvili: “We have made efforts to distribute information among drug users and addicts about this and they are now refusing to be tested. The prosecutor’s office and the patrol police became crazy about the situation and they came forth with contradicting initiative: if a detainee refuses to be tested it means he is under influence. It is illogical but it serves their purposes. Without tests how it possible for police to conclude that a person is actually under the influence of a controlled substance the detainee is. Similar initiatives appear for the purpose of aims to extorting additional money from the second detention.”

Tamar Sirbiladze, Chairperson of Drug Policy Advisory Council and one of the authors of the draft law speaks about the second point of the draft law. “If everybody refuses to be tested what shall we do then? Such a problem can exist and we have taken this into consideration”

Davit Otiashvili pointed out that aim of the much effort of the court and patrol police is to impose as high fine as possible on drug addicts; they are ordered to act in such a manner from higher authorities.

We offer the reader the official data of the Georgian Supreme Court: The total amount of the fine paid under the Georgian Administrative Code, Article 45 has reached 5,745, 266 GEL; under the Article 273 the fine has reached a level of 5,581,500 GEL. In the case of plea-bargain agreements, the total bails paid out during the previous year amounted to 3,071 700 GEL. Thus, in 2007 a total of 14, 400 million GEL was transferred to the National Budget from fines that have been imposed on drug users. The figures speak loudly as to what is going on in the system and no additional commentary is needed.

Although much money has been transferred to the budget from the fines, the draft law aims to increase the fines by four fold. During the first detention, a person should pay a fine in the amount of 300 GEL; for the second time the fine will be twice as much, 600 GEL; and on the third and future occasions the drug-addict will pay a whopping 2 thousand GEL. 

Tamar Sirbiladze claims that the issue about the fine is a hot topic for dispute. “I think 300 GEL is not that much money and an amount that drug-addicts would not be able to afford. Besides that, during the following one month he will not be tested. Those who have not addicted to the drugs yet, the amount of the fine will be a burden to bear. However, I do not support the idea of imprisonment. In addition to that the draft law aims to encourage the treatment of those addicted to drug. It would be better for them to have to pay for the cost of their treatment and rehab. Unless he cannot afford it, he or she will be faced with administrative imprisonment.”

Davit Otiashvili considers that a drug-addict who has not done any harm to society should not be punished. The addict must be punished only when he injects drug in the public places or there is a drug connection to a crime.

Tamar Sirbiladze does not agree with such a liberal take on things as the purchase and usage of narcotic substances is banned under Georgian legislation. Thus, when a drug-addict is arrested he has already committed a crime. “If he has used the drugs, he should be forced to sit home under house arrest. If a police casts doubt on somebody, they should test him. Why people do not protest when they are tested for alcohol?”

Under the Article 45, if a person is eager to undergo treatment, he is discharged from the criminal liability. Unfortunately, similar regulations remain only on the paper. In fact, the judges follow a totally different principle when they deal with drug users. Although Mr. Ilgar (we prefer to keep his surname anonymous) actually took medical treatment voluntarily and introduced the judge with the corresponding notification from the hospital, he was still forced to pay a fine of 500 GEL. The judge considered his mediation to be groundless [only wanted to see the money].

Although the remark about the medical treatment does not work under current legislation, the remark has been completely removed from the draft legislation.  Maybe, the legislators want to fine the drug-addicts regardless of the circumstances. 

Tamar Sirbiladze: “We have canceled that article from the draft law. Compulsory treatment does not work in Georgia at all. However, we have remained voluntary treatment.”

Nana Gvetadze, the lawyer, said that neither voluntary treatment will work in Georgia because there are no treatment centers. “Many people think that the money is going to be spent by particular people and it will not reach the budget.”

In this case, the famous program that provided “Metadon” proved to be insufficient too; it demonstrated that alternative therapy programs are not always successful. Tamar Sirbiladze stated that the program targeted on the people who were addicted to opium and heroin. Those who use “Subotex” “Metadon” cannot be treated under this program as the drug is different as well as the treatment.  Metadon cannot cure a person who is addicted to a substance such as “Vint”. There are instances when the use of one drug will lead to him or her using others, often more powerful and addictive.

“Certain criteria should be taken into consideration when looking at the problem of drug addiction. It is necessary for the drug addict to want to solve the problem and kick the habit if we are to be successful in our efforts. We can only help those who are willing to help themselves. We will fail to resolve the problem if the drug-addict does not want to take treatment himself.”

Any argument would be lame and not convincing that connects higher fines with providing encouragement for drug-addicts to undergo drug treatment, and such an argument is but empty rhetoric. Those, who could afford to pay 2 thousand GEL are able to take treatment without introduction of similar measures. The draft law would only bring about an increase in fines. So it is rather drawn up and self-serving for law enforcers rather than for real drug-addicts.

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