Drug policy of Slovakia is the legislative framework that governs all aspects of legal drugs and

illegal drugs The prohibition of drugs through sumptuary legislation or religious law is a common means of attempting to prevent the recreational use of certain intoxicating substances. While some drugs are illegal to possess, many governments regulate the ...

on the territory of

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It was established with the country's creation on 1 January 1993; the Slovak Republic taking over all commitments of the former

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

. Both domestic and international law governs the manufacture, sale, transport and use of most drugs. Alcohol is the most used drug in

, featuring prominently in the

Slovak culture The culture of Slovakia has various folk traditions influenced by its location in Central Europe. It shares similarities with Czech, Austrian, German, Hungarian and Ukrainian culture. Folk tradition Folk tradition has rooted strongly in ...

. Slovakia consistently ranks among the top alcohol consuming countries in the world. The majority of legal drugs are distributed through a dense network of private

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links healt ...

. Non-prescription drugs are free to buy, but the majority of legal drugs are available only through a bureaucratic process. All citizens are required by law to pay health insurance; health insurance companies, in turn, pay

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

s who prescribe the drugs. Due to the Act on Drugs and Medical Devices from 2011, Slovakia enjoys the second cheapest prescription drugs in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, as of 2012. Slovak illegal drug policy is repressive and often described as "harsh", the law does not differentiate between hard soft drugs and sentences can in theory be as severe as life imprisonment. In Slovakia, illegal drug policy documents have no associated budgets and there is no review of executed expenditures. The only available data coming from an estimate from 2006 suggests that the expenditure represented 0.05% of GDP, with 63.3% for public order and safety, 14.8% for treatment, 7.6% for prevention, 1.8% for coordination, 1.3% for education, 0.9% for harm reduction and 10.3% for other areas.

Legal drug policy of Slovakia

Amendments to the August 2011 Act on the Scope of Healthcare Provision and the 1 October 2011 Act on Drugs and Medical Aids introduce an

active pharmaceutical ingredient An active ingredient is any ingredient that provides biologically active or other direct effect in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease or to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or animals. The ...

(API) prescription, stipulating that doctors in Slovakia should prescribe only the API instead of a specific drug brand.

Illegal drug policy of Slovakia

The current law defining illegal drugs in Slovakia is Law No. 139/1998 Z.z. "Zákon o omamných látkach, psychotropných látkach a prípravkoch" (Narcotic substances, psychotropic substances and preparations Act) which was codified by the

National Council of the Slovak Republic The National Council of the Slovak Republic ( sk, Národná rada Slovenskej republiky), abbreviated to ''NR SR'', is the national parliament of Slovakia. It is unicameral and consists of 150 members, who are elected by universal suffrage under ...

on 2 April 1998. Amendments: * Law No. 260/1999 Z.z. * Law No. 13/2004 Z.z. * Law No. 455/2007 Z.z. * Law No. 393/2008 Z.z. (coupled with Military Police Act amendment) * Law No. 77/2009 Z.z. (coupled with Broadcasting and Re-transmission Act amendment) * Law No. 468/2009 Z.z. * Law No. 43/2011 Z.z. On 11 February 2011, the

made the last change to the law by codifying Law No. 43/2011 Z. z. The act was officially described as being "in relation to dangerous substances usage in the so called Crazy-shops (especially

mephedrone Mephedrone, also known as , , and , is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes. Slang names include drone, , White Magic, meow meow, bubble, ''txomin'' and yurrpt. It is chemically similar to the cathinone compounds ...

and synthetic cannabinoids)". The amendment adds 38 psychotropic substances of the I. class, 1 narcotic substance of the II. class, 1 psychotropic substance of the II. class and 3 psychotropic substances of the III. class. It came into effect on 1 March 2011. Criminalization of illegal drug use, possession and sale is achieved through the Law No. 300/2005 Z.z. "Trestný zákon" (Criminal Law). Amendments: * Law No. 497/2008 Z.z. * Law No. 257/2009 Z.z. * Law No. 576/2009 Z.z. * Law No. 224/2010 Z.z.

Censorship

Section 174 of the Criminal Law called Spreading of toxicomania ( sk, Šírenie toxikománie) establishes

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

in Slovakia by defining a criminal act of broadcasting the use of any other substance of abuse other than alcohol in favorable light, which when committed publicly, carries a 3 to 8 years prison sentence. In practice, Slovak

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

s tend to avoid the drug problem and routinely practice self-censorship, or cover drug-related topics purely from the criminal point of view. Section 174 of the Criminal Law was used on 17 March 2010 to file a complaint at the police which started investigating the fact, that the new political party

Freedom and Solidarity Freedom and Solidarity ( sk, Sloboda a solidarita, SaS) is a liberal political party in Slovakia. Established in 2009, SaS is led by its founder and economist Richard Sulík, who designed Slovakia's flat tax system. It generally holds libertari ...

published its intention to

decriminalize Decriminalization or decriminalisation is the reclassification in law relating to certain acts or aspects of such to the effect that they are no longer considered a crime, including the removal of criminal penalties in relation to them. This reform ...

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

in its program statement before the 2010 parliamentary election. The case was finally dismissed on 4 May 2010.

References

{{Law and order in Slovakia

Drugs in Slovakia

Legal drug policy of Slovakia

Illegal drug policy of Slovakia

Censorship

See also

References