LAW 522 24/11/2004
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LAW No. 522 of November 24th, 2004for amending and completing Law no. 143/2000 on illicit drug traffic and consumption control)ISSUED BY: The Parliament of RomaniaPUBLISHED IN: the Official Gazette of Romania No. 1.155 of December 7th, 2004– The initial document was published in The Official Gazette of Romania No. 1.155 of December 7th, 2004._________ Note C.T.C.E.: For using in court, only the text in the Romanian language has legal foundation.Article I
Law no. 143/2000 on illicit drug traffic and consumption control, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 362 of 3 August 2000, with subsequent amendments and additions, shall be amended and completed as follows:1. The title of the law shall have the following content:LAWon the prevention and control of illicit drug traffic and consumption2. Letter h) of article 1 shall have the following content:h) consumer - a person who illegally administers or allows another person to administer drugs upon himself/herself, by swallowing, smoking, injecting, sniffing, inhaling, or in some other way in which drugs can get into the human body;3. Under article 1, letters h^1), h^2), and h^3) shall be inserted after letter h), with the following content:h^1) drug-addicted consumer - a drug consumer who shows physical and mental consequences according to medical and social criteria, as a result of drug administering in a repeated manner and under necessity or need;h^2) integrated care programme for drug consumers and drug-addicted consumers - all the health services, as well as mental care and social care services provided, in an integrated and co-ordinated manner, to drug consumers, by means of medical, psychological and social institutions, be they public, private, or mixed;h^3) integrated care circuit for drug consumers and drugaddicted consumers - all the integrated care programmes provided to drug consumers and drug-addicted consumers with a view to improving their health condition towards obtaining a physical, mental, and social well-being of such individuals.4. Letters i) and k) of article 1 shall have the following content:i) therapeutic programme - all the integrated medical and psychological services and measures, individually set out by means of evaluation, planning, monitoring and permanent adjustment, per each drug-addicted consumer, in view of discontinuing such consumption, removing mental and/or physical addiction, and/or lowering consumption-related risks; ........................................................................................k) undercover investigators - police officers specially appointed to carry out, with a public prosecutor's authorisation, specific activities aimed at collecting data on the presence of a crime and on the identification of the perpetrators, as well as prior actions, under an identity different from their real one, attributed for a limited period of time;5. Under article 1, letters l), m) and n) shall be inserted after letter k), with the following content:l) psychological and social programme - all the services of individual or group evaluation, counselling and psychotherapy, as well as all the social services and measures, individually set out for each consumer by evaluation, planning, monitoring and permanent adjustment, designed to remove someone's drug addiction and to rehabilitate and re-insert him/her in society;m) therapeutic circuit - all the therapeutic programmes applied onto a drug-addicted consumer in a complex, multidisciplinary, multi-sector and permanent manner, aimed at improving his/her health condition;n) evaluation - determination of a consumer's psychological and social characteristics by centres for drug prevention, evaluation and drug counselling, designed by the case manager to include and monitor a consumer in a psychological and social programme.6. Article 4 shall have the following content:Article 4. - (1) Illegally growing, producing, manufacturing, experimenting, extracting, preparing, processing, buying or holding risk drugs for one's own consumption shall be punishable by prison between 6 months and 2 years, or a fine.(2) If the actions stipulated under paragraph (1) involve high-risk drugs, the punishment shall be prison between 2 and 5 years.7. Under article 14, paragraph (1), letter c) shall have the following content:c) drugs have been sent or delivered, supplied or offered to a minor, a mental patient, a person included in a therapeutic programme, or such actions prohibited by the law have been carried out as regards one of those persons, or if the action has been committed in a medical, educational or military facility or institution, in a detention facility, in social-care or rehabilitation centres, in a medical-educational institution or at places where school or college students and young people carry out educational, sporting or social activities or in the vicinity of such places;8. Under article 17 (2), paragraph (3) shall be inserted, with the following content:(3) The amounts resulting from selling confiscated goods and the confiscated money, according to paragraphs (1) and (2), shall be transferred to the state budget and recorded in a separate account in the state budget.9. Paragraph (3) of article 18 shall have the following content:(3) Drugs shall be destroyed periodically, by incineration or in some other adequate manner, by an authorised trading company, in the presence of a commission comprised of one representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office next to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Ministry of Environment and Water Management, and the National Anti-Drug Agency each, a specialist from the central unit specialised in the prevention and control of illegal drug traffic, next to the Romanian Police General Inspectorate, and the manager of the material evidence room of the same unit.10. Under article 18, paragraph (4) shall be inserted after paragraph (3), with the following content:(4) The expenses incurred because of drug destruction shall be covered by the owner or the person from whom they were taken.11. Article 19 shall have the following content:Article 19. - If a consumer should be sentenced to prison for perpetrating other crimes than those stipulated under article 4, the court may order his/her being included in a therapeutic programme taking place in the penitentiary system.12. Under chapter III "Procedure provisions", articles 19^1 and 19^2 shall be inserted before chapter 20, with the following content:Article 19^1. - (1) If the crimes stipulated under article 4 should be perpetrated, the public prosecutor shall order, within 24 hours from the beginning of the criminal investigation, an evaluation of the consumer by the centre for drug addiction prevention, evaluation and counselling, with a view to having him/her included in the integrated care circuit for drug consumers.(2) After the evaluation report prepared by the centre for drug addiction prevention, evaluation and counselling is received, and based on the forensic examination performed within 5 days, the public prosecutor shall order, with the consent of the accused or defendant, the latter's inclusion in the integrated care programme for drug consumers.(3) If the measure of placing the accused or defendant in custody has been taken, such measure may be cancelled or replaced by some other preventive measure.(4) In all such instances, the criminal investigation shall be pursued under the provisions of the Criminal procedure code.Article 19^2(1) If, by the time a decree is passed, the defendant complies with the protocol of the integrated care programme for drug consumers, the court may apply no sentence onto him/her, or may defer sentence implementation.(2) If sentence implementation should be deferred, the court shall set out, in the decree, the date on which it is to make a decision on the punishment, which time interval may not exceed 2 years, in correlation with the length of the integrated care programme for drug consumers.(3) The time interval between sentence passing and the date set by the court, under paragraph (2), shall represent a probation period for the defendant.(4) As regards an accused or a defendant who refuses to be included in an integrated care programme for drug consumers, the provisions of the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code shall apply.(5) If, during the probation period, the defendant has complied with the integrated care programme for drug consumers, the court may apply no sentence.(6) If the defendant does not comply with the integrated care programme for drug consumers, the court may defer sentence passing one more time, for the same delay, and have him/her re-included in the integrated care programme for drug consumers, or may apply the punishment stipulated by the law.13. Articles 26-29 shall have the following content:Article 26. - (1) The central units specialised in the prevention and control of illegal drug traffic and consumption attached to the Romanian Police General Inspectorate, the Romanian Border Police General Inspectorate, the Department of the Public Prosecutor and the National Customs Authority shall send to the National Anti-Drug Agency the data concerning the prevention and control of the illicit traffic and consumption of drugs, essential chemical substances, precursors and toxic chemical inhaling substances, which is necessary for preparing the report to be submitted to the Government of Romania and to international bodies as regards the evolution and level of drug traffic and consumption in Romania, as well as the data needed for drawing up studies, syntheses and analyses to be used as background for response policies and strategies in the antidrug fight.(2) For the same purpose, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, the Ministry of Education and Research, as well as other public or private institutions accredited for carrying out programmes and activities aimed at preventing illegal drug consumption shall send the data requested by the National Anti-Drug Agency, under the terms of the law.(3) The institutions stipulated under paragraph (2) may receive, at their request, the data centralised by the National Anti-Drug Agency in connection with drugs, essential chemical substances, precursors and toxic chemical inhaling substances, including annual reports, syntheses and analyses.Article 27(1) The consumption of drugs placed under national control, without a physician's prescription, shall be prohibited on the territory of Romania.(2) A person who illegally consumes drugs placed under national control may be included, with his/her consent, in an integrated care programme for drug consumers. The consent given for one's being included in the integrated care programme for drug consumers shall be represented by one's signature on a document, according to the regulations for implementing the provisions of the present law.(3) The centre for drug addiction prevention, evaluation and counselling shall set out the individual psychological and social programmes, based on the psychological and social evaluation, and in compliance with the results of the medical examination requested from a medical institution, under the criteria stipulated in the regulations for implementing the present law.(4) The individual therapeutic programme shall be established under the practice protocols drawn up by the Ministry of Health, through its specialised structures, and the Romanian Physicians' College.(5) The medical units where therapeutic programmes for drug-addicted consumers take place shall send to the centres for drug addiction prevention, evaluation and counselling the data needed with a view to keeping the continuity of the integrated care programme for drug consumers, based on a medical report.(6) The therapeutic programme and the psychological and social programme shall take place in an integrated manner, so that a drug consumer or a drug-addicted consumer may benefit from simultaneous and permanent medical, psychological and social care, in observance of the human rights and patient's rights, under the law.Article 28(1) Psychological and social programmes shall be drawn up by the National Anti-Drug Agency in cooperation, as applicable, with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour, Social Solidarity and Family, and the Ministry of Justice, and may take place in open- or closed-circuit public, private, or in mixed centres authorised and/or accredited for such purposes.(2) Therapeutic programmes shall be drawn up by the Ministry of Health and shall take place in open- or closedcircuit public, private or mixed centres established for such purposes.(3) The expenses incurred for a consumer's evaluation and the implementation of psychological and social programmes shall be covered from the state budget by the National Anti-Drug Agency and, according to his/her resources, by the person in question, his/her family, or a private body, under the terms set out in a joint order by the minister of administration and home affairs, the minister of health, and the minister of public finance.(4) The expenses incurred in connection with the implementation of individual therapeutic programmes for persons included in the health social security system shall be covered by the health insurance houses belonging to the sole national health social security Fund, for illnesses deriving from drug consumption, and through the health programmes of the Ministry of Health and the prophylactic programmes of the National Anti-Drug Agency.(5) Depending on the material resources of the person in question, he/she, his/her family, or private bodies may cover part or the entire value of the evaluation services and the expenses incurred by that person's participation in psychological and social programmes, at the tariffs and under the terms stipulated by decision of the president of the National Anti-Drug Agency, based on the opinion of the ministries involved.(6) The amounts charged by the centres for drug addiction prevention, evaluation and counselling shall represent permanent extra-budget revenues of the National Anti-Drug Agency and shall be used for funding the programmes of illegal drug traffic and consumption prevention. The amounts not used by the end of a year shall be transferred to the next year, for the same purposes.(7) The minister of justice and the minister of health shall set out, in a joint order, the medical and educational measures or programmes to be implemented on drug consumers in penitentiaries.Article 29(1) The personal data of drug-addicted consumers included in the integrated care programmes for drug consumers and drug-addicted consumers is entitled to confidentiality, according to the regulations in force.(2) The centralised record of the drug consumers included in the therapeutic circuit shall be kept by the Romanian Drugs and Drug Addiction Observatory next to the National Anti-Drug Agency, in the sole coded Book on drug consumers, based on the data sent by the Ministry of Health and other institutions co-ordinating therapeutic, psychological and social programmes, as well as by the established public or private centres.(3) Through its designated divisions, the Ministry of Health shall have access to the data in the records stipulated under paragraph (2).(4) A person on whom the measures stipulated under articles 27 and 28 have been implemented shall be issued a nominal certificate or an electronically coded ID card, which shall include: the issuing institution, the identification data of the person in question, the length, object and result of the treatment, the reason for treatment termination, and the health condition of the person in question at the beginning and at the end of the treatment.(5) All the data concerning the persons subject to the integrated care programme for drug consumers and drugaddicted consumers shall be destroyed 10 years after the medical monitoring has ceased. As regards the persons who were subject to integrated care programmes for drug consumers and drug-addicted consumers several times, the data shall be destroyed 10 years after the end of the last period of medical monitoring.14. Table no. I shall be completed with the following substances:PMMA = [paramethoxymethylamphetamine or N-methyl-1-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-aminopropane] 4-MTA = P-methylthioamphetamine or 4 methylthioamphetamine 2C-I = 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine 2C-T-2 = 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine 2C-T-7 = 2,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propylthiophenethylamineTMA-2 = 2,4,5-trimethoxyamphetamine15. Table no. II shall be completed with the following substance:2C-B = 4-bromo-2,5-dimethoxyphenethylamine16. Table no. III shall be completed with the following substances:GHB = y-hydroxybutyric acidZOLPIDEM = N,N,6-trimethyl-2-p-tolylimidazol [1,2=alpha] pyridin-3-acetamide17. Tables no. I-IV shall be completed with the following annotations, at the end of each table:– the salts of the substances in the table, when the presence of such salts is possible;– conditioned products - tablets, sugar-coated tablets, solutions, syrups, etc., set out by order of the minister of health, the composition of which includes the substances listed in the present table.Article II
The present law shall enter into force within 3 months from it being published, except for articles 191 and 192 of Law no. 143/2000, which shall come into effect on the date of the new Penal Code coming into effect.Article III
Within 60 days of the present law being published, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Administration and Home Affairs shall submit to the Government, for approval, the draft decision for amending and completing the Regulations for implementing the provisions of Law no. 143/2000 on illicit drug traffic and consumption control, approved by Government Decision no. 1359/2000, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 46 of 29 January 2001, with subsequent amendments and additions.Article IV
Law no. 143/2000 on illicit drug traffic and consumption control, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 362 of 3 August 2000, with subsequent amendments and additions, as well as those brought about by the present law, shall be republished in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, and texts shall be given a new numbering. ----
