Social grounds for criminal responsibility for violation of the established rules of drug turnover

Abstract

The spread of drug addiction is a danger to both public order and public health. Persons under the influence of drugs can be a danger to themselves and to others, so the effect of some drugs on the body leads to dependence and even death. The state is called upon to protect its population from the spread of this phenomenon. One of the ways to achieve this goal is the criminal legal protection of legal relations defined by the state as possible and desirable. If a person commits acts that distort such legal relations, then the state, protecting a lawful model of behavior, imperatively gives a criminal legal assessment of the actions of this person.
 The object of the research is the social relations accompanying the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, regulated by the legislation of Ukraine. These social relations arise as a result of the following actions: inducement to the consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; illegal cultivation of plants containing such substances; organization or maintenance of dens or systematic provision of premises for their (narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances) consumption; illegal issuance or forgery of prescriptions or other documents giving the right to receive them.
 The issue of criminalization and decriminalization is a specific link in the system of criminal law policy functions. It constitutes a complex mechanism that includes a series of successive decisions and subsequent actions, which in the end lead to the emergence of grounds for applying to persons guilty of certain actions, criminal liability or the abolition of the latter [2, p. 131]. Criminalization or decriminalization of actions is determined by social conditioning.
 Considering the multicomponent nature of the problem and its social prevalence (since it is a mass behavior of certain small social groups and even transforms the social structure), it can be concluded that effective counteraction to such a negative social phenomenon as drug addiction and drug crime is possible only with an integrated approach.