National Assembly discusses draft laws on drug prevention

Continuing the working program, today, October 27, the National Assembly listened to the Presentation and the report on the review of the draft Law on Foreign Trade Management; the Law on Legal Aid (amended); the Law on State Compensation Liability (amended) and discussed in groups about these draft laws.

Previously, during yesterday's working day, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Penal Code No. 100/2015/QH13. Commenting on the draft law, the majority of opinions said that the regulation requiring appraisal to determine the content of pure drugs is not suitable for the current practical situation of drug crimes and does not ensure fairness in handling between cases where drugs are recovered and cases where drugs are not recovered. Currently, the number of cases where drugs are not recovered in our country accounts for over 20% of the total number of drug cases handled.

(Illustration: Quang Trung)

Although drugs were not seized, through the process of fighting the subject, exploiting witnesses and accomplices, the prosecuting agencies still had sufficient evidence to prove the subject's criminal acts and still handled them according to the corresponding provisions of the law.

Also at the discussion session, the majority of delegates agreed with the view of adding the drug XLR-11 (soaked in American grass) and Khat leaves (containing the drug Cathinone); at the same time, they also agreed with the addition of the regulation "other plants containing drugs in the list issued by the Government" to the Penal Code.

Reality shows that drug crimes have been unpredictable in recent times and there is a possibility that many types of plants, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. containing narcotics will appear, so it is necessary to have predictive regulations to ensure timely response to the requirements of the fight against drug crimes, while ensuring strictness and avoiding abuse.

According to the delegates, the regulations on plants containing narcotic substances should be open-ended because there are many types of plants containing narcotic and addictive substances. If new plants or substances are discovered in the future, it would be appropriate to assign the Government to regulate them. This would increase the longevity of the law.

According to VOV