Hungarian policy on drugs

The new Criminal Code came into force on 1 July 2013. The drug control sections are organised to cover trafficking, possession, incitement of minors to use drugs or similar substances, assisting production, precursors, new psychoactive substances (NPS) and performance enhancement (doping). http://thb.kormany.hu/download/a/46/11000/Btk_EN.pdf (Act C of 2012 on the Criminal Code, Chapter XVII) Consumption was reintroduced as a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison (it had been deleted from the 2003 Criminal Code). Possession is still punishable by up to two years in prison if it involves small quantities, but other penalties are now one to five years for a basic offence, increasing to two to eight years if the offence is committed under certain circumstances, and 5-10 and 5-15 years if the offence involves a larger quantity of drugs. Similar sentence ranges are available for supply offences, although they increase to 5-20 years’ imprisonment if they involve certain circumstances and life imprisonment if large quantities are involved. Various lower maximum penalties for offences committed by drug users, introduced in 2003, were repealed in 2013; however, the court may take the perpetrator’s drug use into consideration when imposing punishment. The option to suspend prosecution in the case of treatment is available to offenders committing drug law offences that involve only small quantities of drugs (production, manufacture, acquiring, possession for personal use); this is not available within two years of a previous suspension. To control NPS in Hungary, a government decree set up a formalised rapid assessment in 2012. This allowed the inclusion of NPS in Decree 55/2014 of the Minister of Human Capacities. Inclusion means a temporary control for one year with the possibility of an extension of one year (or until new information emerges). Accordingly, a new section of the 2013 Criminal Code provided for a punishment of up to three years in prison for manufacture and (since January 2014) one to five years for supply and up to three years for possession of more than a small amount of NPS (‘small amount’ was reduced from 10 g to 2 g in 2017). The section penalising the incitement of minors to use ‘a substance or agent that has a narcotic effect but is not classified as a drug’ has been retained, although the maximum penalty has been reduced from three to two years.
Crime prevention policy EU- priority Drug related crimes
Country
Hungary Year 2019