Police Corps President pleased with new illegal drugs bill

Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar has welcomed a Justice Ministry-sponsored bill that would decriminalise drugs in certain cases, TASR learnt on Tuesday. The Justice Ministry on Monday (October 16) unveiled a proposal for completely new drug legislation, stating that the current form doesn't seem to be having the desired effect. "It's important that we don't criminalise young people, who may, sometimes even accidentally or with the intention of trying something, get into a situation in which they are in the wrong place at the wrong time and the police detain them," said Gašpar. The bill aims to impose equal penalties for possession of the same quantities of a drug, to punish drug dealers more harshly, and to provide better anti-drug support. The ministry further proposed that possession of a negligible amount of drugs, such as marijuana, should only be recorded as an offence and not a crime. Only in the case of repeated violations of the law within 12 months should this be viewed as a crime.