On 11 September 2016, elections to the lower house of parliament will be held in Belarus. In these elections, for the first time, Pavel Stefanovich, a young candidate from the opposition United Civic Party, has included the legalisation of marijuana in his election programme.
‘My goal in this campaign is to steer people away from the worst things, such as spice and prison, and offer them a more humane, healthier and more moral alternative for our country,’ Stefanovich told the opposition television channel Belsat.
However, on 16 August, the state television channel Belarus-3 refused to broadcast Stefanovich’s pre-election speech, arguing that the candidate was campaigning ‘for the legalisation of marijuana’. The Central Election Commission of Belarus also reacted extremely critically to Stefanovich’s pre-election statements. ‘The entire apparatus of the Central Commission laughed because television brought the speech of one of the candidates for deputy for examination,’ CEC Chairwoman Lidia Yermoshina told RosBalt.
‘Unfortunately, you will not be able to see it, because it violates not only electoral law, but also the law against drug trafficking, as the entire speech calls for the legalisation of marijuana.’
Nevertheless, the candidate himself is confident that despite the widely held view that Belarusian society is too conservative and inert, and that people will therefore react negatively and extremely aggressively to the proposal to legalise marijuana, the reality he encountered during his election campaign, when discussing this issue at rallies, is completely different. ‘Progressive Belarusians with above-average incomes who read English and often visit Europe are in favour. Older people remember that cannabis was only banned under Khrushchev and perceive it as an agricultural product rather than a drug,’ says the young politician. As a supporter of liberal ideology, Pavel Stefanovich is convinced that it is precisely these bans that have led to the most accessible drug in Belarus being so-called ‘spice’, the use of which has irreversible consequences. However, he believes that the real harm from marijuana use is minimal, and the benefits could be enormous for both agriculture and the production of domestic medicines.
Upon entering Parliament, Stefanovich plans to focus on reforming the country’s anti-drug legislation, asking experts to justify the classification of narcotic substances as dangerous and particularly dangerous, and the appropriateness of long prison sentences for small doses of marijuana or for its use. In the future, Stefanovich believes, the question of removing cannabis and its derivatives from the list of prohibited substances should be raised.
According to Pavel Divakov, an activist with the non-governmental organisation Positive Movement, which helps injecting drug users and people living with HIV in Minsk, against the backdrop of public statements by officials and representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about close cooperation with non-governmental organisations and the introduction of progressive methods of combating drug addiction, drug policy in Belarus is extremely repressive.
Charter’97 wrote that the number of prisoners convicted of drug offences in Belarus would soon reach 10,000. But the reason is not only that this is a common type of crime and long sentences are handed down without mercy. According to the prisoners’ relatives, ‘the courts hand down sentences based on minimal evidence, as long as someone confesses.’
The law of 25 January 2015 introduced Article 328-2 into the Criminal Code, which provides for criminal liability for the use of narcotic drugs without a doctor’s prescription in a public place, in addition to the provisions on the storage and distribution of narcotic substances. According to Divakov, most drug users receive long prison sentences (from 8 to 15 years) under parts 2 and 3 of Article 328 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, and the conditions of detention for prisoners convicted under drug laws in Belarus are extremely harsh, according to Divakov. Divakov said that prisoners convicted under drug laws now wear special green armbands in all camps, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to create special colonies for those convicted under Article 328.
At the same time, substitution therapy programmes are successfully operating in 19 cities in Belarus, and there are organisations providing harm reduction services for drug users. There are also narcologists who support humane methods of combating drug addiction. Vladimir Pikirenya, a Belarusian psychiatrist and narcologist working in a substitution therapy clinic, personally supports both decriminalisation and legalisation, but believes that this process should be gradual and well thought out. According to Pikirenya, decriminalisation will prevent the marginalisation of people who use drugs and give them the opportunity to talk openly about their problems without fear of criminal prosecution. However, Maxim Dorogaikin, director of the Healthy Youth Centre foundation, is categorically opposed to the legalisation of drugs. The expert is convinced that legalisation will not improve the situation with drug use, because as long as Alexander Lukashenko is in power, this is simply impossible.
