There are three main antiprohibitionist initiatives to be undertaken in Russian parliament during the next weeks. All they are to contest the new Federal Law "On Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances" passed in December and in force since April 15, this year. All the three may be considered as the initiatives of Radical Party.
I. Formal request to the Constitutional Court of Russian Federation.
The text of the request has been prepared by LEV LEVINSON, Radical member, secretary of Human Rights Chamber and assistant of Valerij Borscev. The document requests the Court to judge about the compatibility with Russian Constitution of 6 positions in the Law:
1) The list of prohibited or controlled substances - which use may cause administrative and criminal responsibility - is to be asserted by the Government (Art. 2.2 of the Law) and not by a federal law. This contradicts to the Art. 55.3 of the Constitution which states, that rights and freedoms of a citizen may be restricted only by federal law.
2) Art. 2.3 of the Law (the modality of the changes and amendments to the list of prohibited/controlled substances is being asserted by the Government) contradicts to the same Art. 55.3 of the Constitution.
3) Art. 18.2 of the Law also contradicts to the same Art. 55.3 of the Constitution. The Art. 18.2 establishes that decision to ban cultivation of "other plants" (apart of concrete sorts of cannabis) may be taken by the Government.
4) Art. 31.4 of the Law prohibits using of the substances included in the Schedules 1 and 2 by private physicians. This contradicts to the Art. 41 of the Constitution which guarantees right of health protection for everybody, guarantees equality between different health care systems (state, municipal, private) and establishes state protectionism for every above mentioned health care systems. In violation of the Art. 19 (commas 1 and 2), physicians working in private are discriminated in front of those working in the state owned health care institutions.
5) Art. 44.3 of the Law allows the forced medical examination of a person suspected in drug addiction, or illegal drug use according the dispatch of a prosecutor or a police investigator. This article contradicts to the Art. 22.1 of the Constitution which establishes that arrest may be issued only according the court's decision; as well as to the Art. 46.1 of the Constitution which guarantees defence of rights and freedoms in a court.
6) Art. 55.2 of the Law establishes that cure of drug addicts may be conducted only in state or municipal health care institutions, banning for private health institution such kind of activity. It violates Art. 41.1, 41.2 (equality of all health care systems) and Art. 55.3.
It is necessary to collect not less than 90 signatures of State Duma members in order to table the request in the Constitutional Court. Grigorij Javlinskij (leader of "Jabloko") decided to adopt this initiative as his faction's initiative and charged Valerij Borscev (member of "Jabloko" faction) to be formal representative on the issue. On May 21 there will be reunion of the faction (47 members), where the text of the request would be formally adopted as an initiative undertaken by the faction.
Meanwhile, we have achieved preliminary agreements with several members of LDPR (Zhirinovskij's faction) about their support to this initiative. In particular, we have spoken with Alexej Mitrofanov (Zhirinovskij's vice) and Jurij Parshakov. There is a high probability that all the 50 members of the LDPR faction would sign this request.
We can probably count on support of about 10 independent MPs, several members of "Russian Regions" and perhaps even some Communists (first of all, I mean Daria Mitina, leader of Young Communists). However, this question was not yet negotiated with them.
The only problem may represent the total unwillingness of Mr. Javlinskij to ally with not only LDPR (they don't have any contacts) but also with "Russian Regions" because "they also voted for Kirienko's resignation". As it seems now, Javlinskij - fully in the framework of his always' schismatic approach - would oppose any attempts to involve LDPR deputies in this initiative and would prefer the request not passed if it will be necessary to deal with LDPR. Meanwhile, it's evident that without LDPR participation the initiative would fall. Although it is hardly imaginable that "Jabloko" would withdraw their signatures if LDPR join them, nevertheless it is probably that on certain stage of the initiative some political pressure from the Radical Party towards "Jabloko" leadership may be needed.
II. Amendments to the Criminal Code.
This amendments represent an attempt to change criminal responsibility for drug use and drug keeping in small and medium quantities in favour of measures not related to imprisonment. The amendments are being drawn by Lev Levinson too. They are supposed to be formally presented also by Valerij Borscev and have some changes to be approved by the Chamber. There is a special way to present amendments to any of the Codes (including the Criminal Code), they must pass obligatory through Council of the Duma and through Legislation Committee.
III. Amendments to the Federal Law "On Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances".
This is the most "directly antiprohibitionist" and the "less compromised" initiative among all the three. The amendments are also being drawn by Lev Levinson. Unlike two other initiatives, this one is supposed not to be a "Jabloko" initiative, but to be presented by a group formed from very different parliamentarians, including possibly representatives of all the factions and groups. This initiative - unlike for example the request to the Constitutional Court - needs the most active support "from below" where Radical Party's "street lobbying" may be the most effective.
