Improving the Procedure of Medical Examination for Drug Intoxication in the System of Prevention of Drug Trafficking: Russian and Foreign Experience

Abstract

The article analyzes the statistical data of illegal drug consumption and drug-related crime in the Russian Federation, the CIS countries, the UK, the USA, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of India. There are two approaches to organizing the registration and assessment of the number of drug users in the states under consideration. The differences lie in the specific features of national legal models of medical examination for the state of drug intoxication. In the Russian Federation, the CIS countries, and the People's Republic of China, a medical examination for drug intoxication is used by the police officers as a measure of administrative coercion in an extrajudicial procedure. In addition to ensuring road safety and protecting public order, a medical examination for drug intoxication also helps to reveal and identify drug users and people with drug addiction for their further treatment, rehabilitation, and preventive work. The extrajudicial procedure and the simplicity of medical examination for drug intoxication allow the police to ensure a high frequency of its use. A systematic record of people who use illegal drugs is carried out. In the US, UK, and India, illegal actions while under the influence of drugs in public places and driving while intoxicated are punishable, whereas the facts of drug use, in the absence of immediate public danger, remain outside the attention of the police. As a judicial procedure needed for authorizing a medical examination for drug intoxication, such an examination is used less frequently. Studies of the extent of drug abuse in these countries are based on the citizen survey methods. The authors question the validity of using the same methods of assessing the level of drug addiction of the general population and the involvement of drug users in criminal activities for countries with different models of medical examination for drug intoxication. In order to assess the drug situation in the Russian Federation, it is proposed that measures should be taken to improve the methods for recording cases of drug consumption that were identified in the process of medical examination, as well as for registering persons who are under regular medical monitoring in drug treatment institutions. This would make it possible to use the information of drug consumption established in the process of medical examination as the main assessment tool, and the indirect methods (questionnaires, expert assessments) as the auxiliary one.