General Characteristics of Legislative Novels in the Sphere of Counteracting Drug Trafficking in the Republic of Kazakhstan
The authors examine the strategy and tactics of counteracting drug-related crimes in Kazakhstan, the problems of improving criminal law norms regulating liability for illegal drug trade: production, processing, purchasing, storing, transporting, sending or selling narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues and precursors (Art. 296 and 297 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan). There are two categories of people involved in illegal trade of narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues and precursors: users of narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues, and those who distribute these narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues, the latter being more dangerous than people suffering from substance abuse. This is a determining factor that shapes criminal policy in the sphere of criminalizing and penalizing liability for drug-related crimes in Kazakhstan criminal legislation. The authors analyze the two-tier system of criminal offences, the legislative novels on liability for non-medical use of narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues and precursors in public places, and the court practice of sentencing drug addicts to incarceration. They pay attention to the role of the state and the society in shaping criminal policy regarding drug dealers, formulate suggestions on improving such qualifying circumstances as a crime committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, as part of an organized group, involving narcotics, psychoactive substances or their analogues in large or very large quantities.