Problems of Qualification of Trafficking in Plants and Plant Parts Containing Psychoactive Substances and Mushrooms Containing Psilocybin and (or) Psilocin
Drug control – March 14, 2024
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Legal frameworks often overlook online drug trafficking, particularly for natural psychoactive substances. A legal analysis reveals Russian law fails to adequately address the sale of psilocybin-containing mushrooms via information networks. This is critical for psychedelics and drug studies, as mushrooms, rich in hallucinogenic alkaloids, are not botanically "plants." Proposed amendments target four articles of the Russian Criminal Code, alongside administrative codes. These changes would clarify the legal status of psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen, and its chemical nature, improving the suppression of illicit trafficking, including substances derived from chemical synthesis.
Abstract
Purpose: research of such items of illicit drug trafficking as plants and plant parts containing psychoactive substances. Methodology: study and analysis of judicial practice of higher courts and scientific research of natural science specialists; formal legal and technical legal methods. Conclusions: there is a lack of due attention to the problem of selling narcotic plants and their parts, as well as narcotic mushrooms using information and telecommunication networks (including the Internet); the question is raised about the selection of mushrooms containing psilocybin and (or) psilocin from the List of plants containing psychoactive substances, since mushrooms are not plants. Scientific and practical significance: the authors propose the dispositions of art. 228, part 1 art. 228.1, art. 229.1 and art. 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the dispositions of the relevant articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, after the words ‘...or their parts containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances’, add the words ‘mushrooms containing psilocybin and (or) psilocin’. Also part 2 of art. 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation should be supplemented with the words: ‘Acquisition of items specified in Part 1 of this article using the media or electronic or information and telecommunication networks (including the Internet)’, which in general will make it possible to suppress their illegal trafficking.