Polish President Andrzej Duda has signed an amendment to law limiting the production and marketing of new psychoactive substances, so-called designer drugs, president's spokesman Krzysztof Łapiński has told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).
The amendment is to help the effective fight against designer drugs. Under the new law, designer drugs will be treated as illegal narcotics.
In late July, the Sejm (lower house) adopted and the Senate (upper house) passed without changes a draft amendment on the law countering drug addiction and the law on the State Sanitary Inspectorate (Sanepid).
The aim of the amendment is to step up counter-measures against the threats inherent in new psychoactive substances by limiting access to them. In recent days, in the central region of Łódź alone, ten people died who probably took designer drugs. Nine people have so far been detained on suspicion of drug dealing. They face possible reckless homicide charges.
On Thursday, the Health Minister, Łukasz Szumowski, told reporters that "the problem of designer drugs is dramatic." He assessed that the amendment "will indeed help in the fight (against designer drugs - PAP), because it changes the approach to people dealing with substances that cause death."
After the legal changes, possession of significant quantities of the previously legal psychoactive substances will attract a sentence of up to three years in prison, while dealers will face up to 12 years.
Among the amendments is an obligation to report to Sanepid cases of poisoning through a substitute agent or new psychoactive substance (referred to in the bill as 'designer drugs'). Clinics that suspect a patient of using such substances will have to inform their local sanitary inspector. Information about people who are hospitalised as a result of designer drug poisoning will also have to be sent to the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate (GIS). Currently, such data is collected by a national consultant in the field of toxicology in cooperation with GIS.
Following the amendment, the inclusion of designer drugs on the list of New Psychoactive Substances will be faster. This will enable the lists to be updated and in effect accelerate the process of delegalising new substances. The rules on treatment and rehabilitation of users of new substances will also be complemented. Research shows that they are as addictive as narcotics.
The state prosecutor on Friday took over an investigation in the Łódź region which had been set up the day before, Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro said.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 International, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24