La reforma de la ley sobre drogas en Polonia sale adelante tras tres años de negociaciones

In early April, the Polish parliament amended Poland's drug law. The debate was heated and speeches were, at times, dramatic. 258 MPs voted in favour of amending the law, 159 were against, and 6 refrained. The amendment project was drawn up by a team of experts in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice. After three years of work, common sense and public health finally prevailed. The bill now awaits voting in the Senate, before being signed by the president.

Under the new law, public prosecutors will be able to refrain from prosecuting a person for the possession of psychoactive or psychotropic substances if the individual possesses only a small amount of an illegal drug for personal use and has been arrested for the first time. At the same time, the maximum penalty for possessing a large amount of drugs was raised. Despite attempts by the Social Liberal Democrats (SLD), upper and lower limits were not defined or written into the bill.

To date, Poland has had one of the most punitive drug policies in Europe. The possession of any amount of illicit substances can result in a three-year prison sentence. While this is only a small change, it is nevertheless a step in the right direction.