Legal Individualisation of Criminal Punishments for Drug Trafficking in the Criminal Legislation of the Republic of Moldova

This study addresses the issue of the legal individualisation of criminal punishments for drug trafficking offences provided for in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Moldova. The rationale of the scientific approach lies in the need for a perpetual harmonisation of criminal legislation to the new trends of manifestation of drug trafficking, in order to make the applicable deterrent arsenal more efficient in relation to the various practical situations of committing these crimes. The aim is to re-evaluate the legal criteria for the individualisation of criminal punishments for drug trafficking offences and to assess the degree to which these criteria correspond to the deterrent purpose of the criminal punishments applicable to drug traffickers. Some solutions for a reference law on the harmonization of the punitive regime established for drug trafficking offences in strict accordance with their seriousness were substantiated. Based on the national specificity existing in the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova (Republic of Moldova Criminal Code, 2002), it was proposed to create a separate incriminatory framework for trafficking in narcotic substances with narcotic effect, which are new generation drugs not provided for by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (United Nations, 1961) and the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances. The ineffectiveness of the quantitative criterion for individualising penalties for trafficking in ethnobotanicals, represented by their quantitative proportions, has also been demonstrated. In this context, the idea of individualisation of criminal punishments for trafficking in ethnobotanicals based on qualitative criteria, which are represented by the risks that these substances pose to the health of consumers, was promoted.