Legal Effects of the Liberalization of Low-Risk Narcotic Drugs

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify the legal effects of the liberalization of low-risk narcotic drugs. In this regard, issues related to the subject, including the decriminalization of low-risk narcotic drugs, the grounds for the liberalization of low-risk narcotic drugs, the legal effects of the liberalization of low-risk narcotic drugs, and similar matters, were analyzed and examined. The findings of this study indicate that, first, the grounds for the liberalization of low-risk narcotic drugs may legally be justified based on the reduction of trafficking in industrial and high-risk narcotics, the prevention of case accumulation and prolonged judicial proceedings, labeling theory, and the enforcement of the principle of prioritizing more important laws as legal foundations for the decriminalization of low-risk narcotic drugs. Second, the decriminalization of low-risk narcotic drugs in many developed countries has led to a reduction in the tendency toward high-risk narcotic drugs and the harms arising from them. Third, if the liberalization of low-risk narcotic drugs is also implemented in Iranian law, it may prevent young people from gravitating toward industrial and high-risk narcotics, as well as the accidents and crimes resulting from hallucinations. This is because accident reports have repeatedly indicated that many incidents of murder, severe violence, and similar offenses have been caused by the consumption of industrial, psychoactive, and hallucinogenic drugs.