The Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) has sharply criticized a legislative initiative submitted to the Senate that seeks to decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal use. DIICOT argues that this regulation would not reduce drug trafficking; instead, it would provide traffickers with more avenues to evade criminal liability.
In a 20-page document released on Monday, DIICOT rejects the draft law, initiated by senators Victoria Stoiciu (independent), Cristian Ghinea (USR), and Daniel Fenechiu (PNL), which proposes that the possession of drugs for personal use no longer be punishable by imprisonment (as is currently the case), but rather by an administrative fine ranging from 1,000 to 3,000 lei, agerpres reports.
Among other points, DIICOT notes that the draft law fails to establish a threshold to distinguish between drug consumption and drug trafficking. Furthermore, it argues that shifting the responsibility to police officers, who would have to decide, via an administrative procedure, whether to impose a fine or initiate criminal proceedings, "creates a vulnerability to pressure and corruption."
"The legislative proposal cannot be supported, neither in its original form nor through specific amendments. Its flaws do not concern the drafting, but rather the underlying concept: the bill abandons the criminal law response without establishing any criteria to distinguish between a consumer and a trafficker; it shifts the legal classification of an offense from the prosecutor to the police officer; it imposes fines of only a few hundred lei for acts that international conventions, to which Romania is a party, oblige the state to criminalize and it creates several ways for traffickers to evade criminal liability. The accompanying explanatory memorandum is contradicted, in key respects, by the bill's own data and annexes," asserts DIICOT.
The bill's explanatory memorandum presents the decriminalization of drug use as the "obvious" direction in which the continent is moving, suggesting that Romania's current stance is an isolated one, "running counter to the entire European trend."
"The reality is different: several jurisdictions that removed the possession of drugs for personal consumption from the scope of criminal law, or liberalized it without an implementation framework, subsequently reversed course; the reasons for this reversal correspond to the flaws in the draft legislation under review. The studies cited by the proponents did not establish a causal link between decriminalization and an increase in overdose deaths, and the observations presented here do not rely on such a link; rather, the issues that prompted the reversal stem from the functioning of the mechanism itself," DIICOT emphasizes.
For instance, on June 9, 2022, Thailand removed the cannabis plant (excluding extracts containing more than 0.2% THC) from its list of narcotics, without adopting the previously announced regulatory legislation. Over 18,000 authorized shops emerged, authorities reported an increase in dependency, and concerns were publicly raised regarding access by minors. Consequently, following an announcement by the Ministry of Public Health, effective as of June 26, 2025, sales were restricted to those with a medical prescription, and the use of cannabis was limited exclusively to medical purposes.
In Italy, Law no. 685/1975 stipulated that the possession of a moderate quantity of drugs for personal use was not punishable, though it failed to provide a definition for what constituted such a quantity. Law no. 162/1990 introduced the average daily dose, established by ministerial decree; the government cited "a widespread attitude of tolerance and permissiveness" brought about by the previous regulation.
