Poland

Drug Laws and the Fall of the Soviet Union

In 1985 Poland enacted the Law on Prevention of Drug Abuse. The law was relatively liberal and emphasized harm reduction, treatment instead of punishment, and law enforcement action only for cultivation, import, and export that increased the supply of drugs. Demand was treated as a social and medical problem, but there remained administrative penalties for possession without official consent (a prescription). Restrictions on poppy growing ended the availability of abundant kompot, leading to the development of an international trade to replace the local, home-based market of the 1970s. Under the communist-era 1985 law, the prisons remained relatively empty because police chose not to enforce the laws.

After the fall of the communist bloc, in 1989 Polish drug policy began conforming to the repressive model. After 1989 Poland and other central European states became transit points for trafficking in traditional drugs, and Poland developed drug problems similar to elsewhere in Europe. The fall of the Soviet Union spawned in the successor states gangs that engaged in kidnapping, bank robbery, and other crimes, including drug trafficking. Polish gangs were linked with those in Russia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia. The Italian Cosa Nostra was involved as well. Lack of repressive controls and open borders allowed the rise of a transnational network for moving heroin, cocaine, LSD, and ecstasy, causing a decline in kompot consumption.

In 1990 Poland reported a single smuggling case. By 1996 the number was 97, and experts cautioned that the state was underreporting. Customs was unable to examine more than 20 to 30 percent of incoming traffic, so Poland became a transit point for Middle Eastern and North African hashish and marijuana as well as Latin American cocaine. In 2002 Poland seized 72 kilograms of amphetamines, down from the previous year's 195 kilograms. Heroin taken was less than five kilograms, versus over 200 the previous year. Marijuana seizures were up to 331 kilograms from 75. Hashish confiscated was at 100 kilograms versus 9 kilograms the previous year.

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