Mild punishment for marijuana takes effect
Rehabilitation is also an option.
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Beginning in May, the criminal consequences of personal use of marijuana have been reduced. The just-enforced revision of the criminal law not only introduces milder punishment, but also introduces so-called preventive treatment, or rehabilitation options.
Punishment for marijuana users has been debated in Slovakia for several months. In some cases, possession of marijuana was more severe than manslaughter.
The author of the amendment responded to such severe punishment. Since the beginning of 2021, there have been repeated attempts to change the law.
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What are the changes
The amendments provide a special de facto basis for self-consumption of narcotic or psychotropic substances from cannabis plants.
In this case, the maximum penalty is one year if the amount is less than three times the normal disposable dose. The two-year limit applies to doses equivalent to up to 10 times a single dose.
The authors also responded to severe penalties for possession of the drug more than 10 times. The duration of the prison will change from 3 to 10 years to 3 to 7 years. In the case of repetitive crimes, prison time is significantly increased compared to the first crime. The punishment has been reduced from 10 to 15 years to the current 5 to 10 years.
Slovak law does not distinguish between marijuana and other illegal drugs, so-called hard drugs and soft drugs. And for repeated violations, the law does not distinguish between users and dealers.
Changes are only relevant in the case of possession and only in relation to substances from cannabis plants. For other substances, the current regulations remain the same.
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Rehab instead of prison time
The amendment also removed the lower limit of the penalty rate for the storage of drug-producing items that may include the cultivation of cannabis plants. It used to be a year. The idea was to allow the court to take into account all the circumstances of an individual case and remove the disproportionate rigor.
In addition, if the criminal agrees, the court may impose rehabilitation instead of imprisonment.
https://spectator.sme.sk/c/22900397/milder-punishments-for-marijuana-come-in-effect.html Mild punishment for marijuana takes effect
