DIICOT rejects the bill to decriminalize drug use

DIICOT rejects Bill B544/2026, registered with the Senate on October 5, under which personal drug use would be sanctioned as an administrative offense rather than a criminal offense. The prosecution service says the initiative cannot be supported either in its current form or through amendments, because the problems concern its underlying design, not its wording.

The bill provides for fines for cultivating, producing, purchasing or possessing drugs for personal use, as well as for importing and exporting them for this purpose. DIICOT criticizes the lack of quantity thresholds and a clear definition of personal use, which would allow the same act to be classified either as an administrative offense or as drug trafficking, carrying sentences of up to 20 years.

Prosecutors warn that the decision would be transferred from the prosecutor to the police officer, without an effective control mechanism, and that a final administrative-offense report could subsequently block trafficking investigations through the application of the ne bis in idem principle. In addition, treating imports and exports as administrative offenses would violate Romania’s international obligations.

DIICOT considers that the fines would be easy to avoid, while medical assessment would remain optional, with no consequences for refusing it. The prosecution service argues that the bill would not ease the burden on the judicial system and would create loopholes for international and online trafficking.

DIICOT nevertheless acknowledges that sentences for small quantities brought into the country exclusively for personal use may be disproportionate. The proposed solution is to retain the criminal nature of the acts and restore the possibility of tailoring sentences, rather than decriminalizing them.