Bill passed obliging those convicted of drug-related crimes to treatment and rehabilitation programs

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The new law stipulates that those convicted of buying, accepting, possessing, or using drugs must attend treatment and rehabilitation programs. The bill was put forward together with an enforcement and bankruptcy law amendment.

Independent penitentiary institutions will be opened with treatment and rehabilitation programs for those convicted of drug-related crimes. Additionally, existing penitentiary institutions will be retrofitted.

Experts can temporarily restrict the convict's visit and meeting rights for treatment and rehabilitation programs to succeed.

This also applies to those who are convicted of another crime but are considered to be addicted to drugs. Treatment and rehabilitation programs can be imposed on those who are on probation. While on probation, they are banned from certain work environments, such as those that involve children. Drug tests might be forced as well.

Drug use in Turkey

In the past years, drug use and substance-related detentions have surged. 1,107 drug gangs have been dismantled since 2017, and between 5,500 to 6,000 people have been detained, Turkey's Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu recently stated, adding that while the rate of drug use is 5.6 percent worldwide, 29 percent in Europe, it us only 3.1 percent in Turkey.

The most widely used drugs in Turkey last year were cannabis and methamphetamine, a recent survey among 31,000 people who faced legal action for drug-related crimes showed. (AS/WM)