Daniele, who plans to change the drug policy in Lithuania, has a strong back: he suggests that it does not stop there.

As Ignas Rubikas, Head of the Mental Health Division of the Ministry of Health (SAM) said during the hearings, the Ministry supports in principle the idea of ​​transferring the penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs without the objective of distributing them from the Penal Code to the Code of Administrative Offenses.

“It would be important to include alternative measures to punishment, which would include education, prevention, early intervention, treatment, rehabilitation, follow-up care, social reintegration. It is planned to implement an inter-institutional action plan for the implementation of this agenda,” said I. Rubikas.

The project to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs without distribution purposes was prepared by the deputy of Seimas Morgana Danielė. Gražina Bielian, deputy director of the Drug, Tobacco and Alcohol Control Department (NTAKD), also expressed her support for such an initiative.

“The fact that these projects are already underway, that they are being considered, is a good thing. Our department supports the amendments to both the Administrative Offenses and the Penal Code, ”he said.

According to Bielian, since 2017, the number of criminal cases for such crimes has increased significantly.

“Yes, in 2015 In 2019 617 acts of this type were registered. – 1,310, and in 2020, even despite a pandemic situation, 1,142 crimes were registered. If we look at the perpetrators of crimes, what is their portrait? 128 minors, who together with the group of young people from 18 to 29 years old represented 66% ”, pointed out the deputy director of NTAKD.

For his part, Deputy Attorney General Gintas Ivanauskas stated that it was necessary to address this issue systematically.

“Minors are increasingly involved in this and, from the point of view of the State, it poses certain risks that must be considered not only through decriminalizing changes in the law, but throughout the complex, both in relation to services doctors as in the revision of articles of the Penal Code ”, pointed out G. Ivanauskas.

However, he emphasized that when sentencing those convicted for the first time, it is taken into account whether the person in question has not committed other crimes.

“The state does not react too harshly to the first-time victims of these crimes. In the opinion of the Prosecutor’s Office, to this day, the forces of order do not look too strictly at these young people, but we see problems in general in terms of the legal basis for these crimes ”, assured the Deputy Attorney General.

After M. Daniele pointed out that addicted people suffer from excessive criminalization, G. Ivanauskas pointed out that such people often not only dispose of small amounts of drugs without the purpose of distributing them, but also engage in robberies and other crimes.

However, he emphasized the need to speak not only about the decriminalization of such a crime, but also about changes in drug policy in general, such as smuggling.

“To resolve legal issues you have to look at it systematically, and in parallel it should go to health, prevention and treatment programs, which have more benefits than all this issue of regulation of articles,” said G. Ivanauskas, who was also represented by a representative of the Police Department.

Not all coalition partners support the initiative

The Freedom Party, for the sake of fines only for the crime, is still opposed to such a project by the main Conservative partners in the coalition.

As conservative Laurynas Kasčiūnas has told LNK, politicians have understood that the conversation in this initiative is only about soft drugs.

“Well, I also understood that we are talking about so-called soft drugs,” L. Kasčiūnas told LNK.

“We have to try to find a way to distinguish between ‘light’ drugs, ‘grass’, and those that cause much greater health consequences,” explained Antanas Matulas, curator and chairman of the Seimas Health Affairs Committee.

Conservatives would support decriminalizing only small amounts of marijuana.

“I think we all mean cannabis. And now it’s written without realizing the difference, but it must be,” said conservative Jurgis Razma.

Conservatives also say that the separation of marijuana from other drugs will be recorded by other members of the Seimas, and fines for disposing of small amounts of drug media without the purpose of distribution should be significantly higher than the € 20 offered. at the moment.