On Monday, the Justice Ministry unveiled a proposal for completely new drug legislation, as the current one does not seem to be having the desired effect, the TASR press agency reported. The aim of the bill is to impose equal penalties for possession of the same amount of drugs, to punish drug dealers in particular more harshly than 'recreational drug users' and to provide better help and prevention when it comes to drugs in general. "According to official statistics, as many as 30 percent of young people have experimented with marijuana, and, according to the law currently in place, a third of these people should face criminal prosecution followed by imprisonment or, more likely, a suspended sentence", said Justice Minister Lucia Žitňanská (Most-Hid). Concerning drug possession, the draft law gives priority to prevention over criminalisation. "We propose that the possession of a negligible amount of drugs should be recorded only as an offence and punished by a fine the first time. Only in the case of repeated violations of the law within 12 months should this be viewed as a crime," said the minister, stressing that any drug possession is illegal even according to the new bill.
According to prosecutor Jozef Čentéš, there are courts in Slovakia that have convicted people for possessing marijuana only when the quantity has exceeded 0.5 grams, but there are also courts that do the same in the case of offenders caught in possession of an amount five times lower. "We want courts always to react to the same situation with the same decision, which also meets the principles of the rule of law," said Čentéš. The bill has been drawn up over several years by a working commission of experts from various areas. The Justice Ministry has submitted the bill to its comments phase, and Žitňanská says that's she is ready for a long and thorough discussion.
