Penal Provisions
Article 22 provides:
- 1. (a) Subject to its constitutional limitations, each Party shall treat as a punishable offence, when committed intentionally, any action contrary to a law or regulation adopted in pursuance of its obligations under this Convention, and shall ensure that serious offences shall be liable to adequate punishment, particularly by imprisonment or other penalty of deprivation of liberty.
- 1. (b) Notwithstanding the preceding sub-paragraph, when abusers of psychotropic substances have committed such offences, the Parties may provide, either as an alternative to conviction or punishment or in addition to punishment, that such abusers undergo measures of treatment, education, after-care, rehabilitation and social reintegration in conformity with paragraph 1 of article 20.
Conspiracy, attempts, preparatory acts, and financial operations related to drug offenses are also called on to be criminalized. Parties are also asked to count convictions handed down by foreign governments in determining recidivism. Article 22 also notes that extradition treaties are "desirable", although a nation retains the right to refuse to grant extradition, including "where the competent authorities consider that the offence is not sufficiently serious."
As with all articles of the Convention on Psychotropic Substances, the provisions of Article 22 are only suggestions which do not override the domestic law of the member countries:
- 4. The provisions of this article shall be subject to the provisions of the domestic law of the Party concerned on questions of jurisdiction.
- 5. Nothing contained in this article shall affect the principle that the offences to which it refers shall be defined, prosecuted and punished in conformity with the domestic law of a Party.
Read more about this topic: Convention On Psychotropic Substances
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