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NEW PSYCHOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

The Polish government has decided to change regulations regarding new psychoactive substances.

Until now, the disposal of all of new psychoactive substances (until they have been recognized as illegal drugs) was sanctioned by administrative law - under the Sanitary Act, the introduction of dangerous substances on the market was threatened by serious financial sanctions. Possession was not punishable. From time to time, some of the new psychoactive substances were entered into the lists-annexes to the Act on Counteracting Drug Addiction and then were treated like traditional drugs: the marketing of them (also possession for own use) became threatened with prison sentences. In order for a given substance to be included in the annex lists, the parliament had to decide, which usually lasted several months.

Currently, this procedure has been simplified and the Minister of Health will decide by decree which substances will be treated as drugs, and their possession will be punishable as criminal penalties. The advisory for these decisions will be the Risk Assessment Team – established in 2015 and composed of specialists in various areas related to drugs, medicine and law.

Under the new policy, consumers will be fined or imprisoned for up to 3 years (as in the case of traditional drugs) for having small quantities of new substances (entered on the list by regulation). Under certain circumstances, in the case of possession o f small amounts, intended for personal use, it will be possible to discontinue the proceedings (Article 62 a).

The second change is the introduction of analogue law. Not only will the specific substance be covered by the regulations - at the same time, whole groups of substances with a similar chemical structure can be included by the Minister of Health.