CSTO PA’s constant focus is improving the drug-trafficking laws of the CSTO Member States

The November 19 publication will be about the model legislative acts of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly dedicated to the fight against the drug threat and, more broadly, about the harmonization of the laws of the CSTO Member States regulating relations in trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors.
The Recommendations on the Improvement of the National Legislation of the CSTO Member States Regulating Trade in Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Their Precursors were developed in accordance with the 2014–2016 CSTO Programme of Further Development and Improvement of Legal Support of Collective Security and were adopted by the Assembly in 2016.
The adopted recommendations objectively made it possible to increase legal regulation in the CSTO Member States through the formation of unified lists of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors; to eliminate regulatory contradictions that existed in the laws of the CSTO Member States regulating the trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors; to ensure that such laws fully meet the urgent needs of socioeconomic development of the CSTO Member States in the current drug-related situation.
However, in the four years that passed since the adoption of the recommendations, the situation related to illicit drug trafficking has changed, and a number of new threats have emerged in this area, for example, the fact that dozens, if not hundreds, of new uncontrolled psychoactive substances appear every year that are or may be abused.
Hence the need to improve the legal framework that facilitates the rapid introduction of control over the trafficking in such substances and the need to harmonize the legislation of the CSTO Member States in this area.
As you may recall, at a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation on November 16, 2020, Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the CSTO Collective Security Council and President of the Russian Federation, called for closer drug cooperation, “primarily at prominent and influential platforms such as the United Nations, BRICS, CSTO and SCO, and expand the exchange of information and experience in countering transnational, cross-border drug-related crime.”
And at a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries of Security Councils of CSTO Member States on November 17, Igor Zubov, State Secretary and deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, presented the draft 2021–2025 Antidrug Strategy of the CSTO Member States, which will be submitted for review to the CSTO Collective Security Council on December 2.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the CSTO has developed draft Recommendations on the Establishment of Common Approaches of the CSTO Member States to the State Registration of New Psychoactive Substances, which will be reviewed at a meeting of the CSTO PA Council on November 30, 2020.