Drug policy of the Soviet Union

The drug policy of the Soviet Union changed little throughout the existence of the state, other than slowly becoming more repressive,^[1][2][3] although some differences in penalties existed in the different Union Republics.^[4] However, the prevalence of drug addiction remained reportedly low as first claimed by Soviet authorities^[5][6] which later (under Mikhail Gorbachev) acknowledged a much larger problem;^[7][8] at least to drugs other than alcohol or tobacco;^[4][9] however, the rates of addiction increased in post-Soviet states.^{[2][9][10][11][12][13]}

Regulation

Legislation against drugs first appeared in post-revolutionary Russia, in Article 104-d of the 1922 penal code of the

A further decree issued in 1987 made a conviction for the above offences within a year of an earlier conviction for the same violation of the law liable to punishment of up to two years' imprisonment or corrective labor. Sergei Lebedev, the Chairman of the Association of Independent Advocates in Leningrad at the time, argued that the steady escalation of criminal penalties for drug use was "indicative of the Soviet authorities’ resignation to their complete inability to solve drug problems in a constructive and humane way".[17]

Treatment

Treatment was performed in various different ways depending on the substance the patient was addicted to: a physician would usually administer their drug of choice in small doses for maintenance, which was done to reduce the intensity of the withdrawal symptoms.^[1]

See also

• Arguments for and against drug prohibition
• Drug liberalisation
• Drug policy of Portugal
• Drug policy of the Netherlands
• Drug policy of the United States
• Drug rehabilitation

References