Archive note: This text comes from the old archive of Nomika Epilekta and is preserved with care for historical and informational reading.

On 20.03.2013 the new Law 4139/2013 on narcotics (“law on addictive substances and other provisions”) was published in the Government Gazette [Government Gazette 74, first issue, of 20.03.2013]. It was prepared by a special legislative drafting committee headed by a professor of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. With the new law an attempt was made to “modernize” the legislation through which the State seeks to confront the scourge of narcotics trade and trafficking, without destroying drug addicts. Whether this recent legislation is successful or not will be shown by the way in which it is applied. The articles of the law show that some timid steps were taken in the right direction for treating drug addicts as sick people, as they truly are, and not as ruthless criminals who must be destroyed. Yet again, penalties are also provided against persons dependent on narcotics, that is, against patients who need treatment and not the false “correction” of confinement in prisons in order to die. The need for the new legislation arose from the finding that the war against the narcotics trade was not crowned with success and that the imposition of exterminating penalties “on the just and the unjust alike” did not limit either trafficking or the spread of narcotics. This happened because, as a rule, courts sentence with long terms of imprisonment sick people who had the misfortune to become dependent on narcotics, some inexperienced young people, foreign migrants and, in general, weak persons who do not have the means to defend themselves and prove their innocence. By contrast, ruthless dealers and, indeed, the major narcotics traffickers remain untouched (without forgetting the so-called “perjured” police officers who excel in narcotics trafficking and are rarely exposed). For this reason, the new law included a series of regulations intended to provide medical treatment for drug addicts and to apply a new correctional understanding for offenders. From now on drug addicts should be treated (as a rule) with therapeutic measures and not with measures of penal extermination. However, the threat of extreme penalties of temporary and life imprisonment is maintained for those who will be characterized as narcotics traffickers. A stricter penalty framework is provided for major narcotics traffickers, since the especially aggravated cases of trafficking, such as when the perpetrator uses weapons or intends to cause a minor to use narcotics or to use a minor for the commission of the crime, or caused serious bodily injury or death, or acts professionally, are punished with life imprisonment or with temporary imprisonment of 10-20 years and a fine that reaches up to 600,000 euros. Article 20 § 1 of the new law provides that “whoever illegally traffics narcotics shall be punished with imprisonment of at least eight years and with a fine of up to three hundred thousand euros”, while other articles distinguish (a΄) special cases, referring to trafficking in small quantities of narcotics, with provision for the imposition of a penalty of up to three years, (b΄) aggravated cases, with provision for a prison sentence of at least ten years and a fine from 50,000 to 500,000 euros, and (c΄) especially aggravated cases, with provision for life imprisonment or temporary imprisonment of at least ten years and a fine from 50,000 to 600,000 euros and, in more serious violations, with provision for life imprisonment and a fine from 50,000 to 1,000,000 euros. According to the explanatory report of the new narcotics law, in the especially aggravated cases the more lenient treatment of the dependent, that is the sick, perpetrator is excluded; he no longer has a reduced penalty framework, but the full penalty. Among the provisions of the new law there is also the important rule that “those who have acquired the habit of using narcotics and cannot abandon it by their own powers are subjected to special treatment”. Moreover, the same law also establishes the institution of the “Prosecutor for Crimes of Corruption”, who will perform his duties on a full-time and exclusive basis and will be assisted by at least two Prosecutors or Deputy Prosecutors of the Court of First Instance. The selection will be made by the Supreme Judicial Council, while, as the Minister of Justice has clarified, the establishment of this specific prosecutorial position is not intended to abolish the established positions of the two Financial Prosecutors. A specific period is also provided within which the investigation, the submission of a proposal by the Prosecutor to the judicial council and the issuance of the relevant order must be completed in corruption cases of major social interest and public interest, in which the accused are held in pretrial detention, so as to address the “phenomenon” of their release because the 18-month limit has been completed. In this last case there is an insistence on the barbaric institution of pretrial detention, that is, deprivation of liberty without trial, which, despite the lukewarm legislative attempts made from time to time, gathers the inexplicable preference of judges and prosecutors. I am of the opinion that the adoption of the new law will not contribute to combating the trade, trafficking and use of narcotics unless other measures are also taken in favor of young people, and not only them, and unless our declining society acquires principles, values and visions that only inspired men and women can support, promote, establish and, above all, serve.