Socio-legal nature of drug-related crimes in modern international and Russian law

Abstract

The high level of drug addiction in modern society requires the Russian Federation and the international community to coordinate measures aimed at countering the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and similar substances, for which it is important to develop unified approaches to determining the socio-legal nature of drug crimes. It has been established that in order to understand the social and legal essence of drug crimes, a systematic analysis of the nature and degree of their social danger is necessary, which, first of all, is associated with the object (including the subject) and the objective side of drug crimes. It is shown that, unlike the national criminal legal system, in international law there is no special indication of the object of criminal acts. In addition, international anti-drug law does not provide for the division of objects of crimes «vertically». It is possible to draw a conclusion about the content of the object of these encroachments in international law based on the text of the preambles of the relevant international legal sources. It has been proven that the main object of drug crimes under international law should be recognized as «human health». It has been established that Russian criminal legislation provides for a much wider list of subjects of drug crimes than in international law, both in terms of the number of narcotic drugs and the number of psychotropic substances. To effectively combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and similar substances, it seems advisable to provide in international law for the offenses of theft and extortion of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, as well as violations of the rules for the circulation of narcotic drugs and similar substances, since the conventions do not contain analogues in the list of punishable acts this crime, which leads to gaps in international legal regulation. It is concluded that in order to effectively combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and similar substances, it is necessary to fully harmonize the approaches of international law and domestic criminal legislation in this area.