The Center of Urban and Regional Planning for Postgraduate Studies at the University of Baghdad organized a workshop titled “Legislative Regulation of the Crimes of Drug Abuse and Trafficking.” The workshop was delivered by Assistant Professor Haider Adnan Sadiq, Head of the Legal Division at the Center.
The workshop aimed to define drug abuse as the use of natural or synthetic substances that affect the mental and psychological behavior of the user, leading to behavioral disturbances and a lack of control over their actions. There are two types of drugs: the first is natural, in which humans do not intervene, and the second is synthetic, in which humans play a role.
Sadiq emphasized that the crime of drug trafficking takes the form of selling, promoting, or transporting drugs from the supplier (drug dealer) to the user (victim). The scope of the drug trafficking crime is local, regional, and international. The elements of the crime lie in the factory, the promoter, the seller, and the victim. Most of the motives for drug trafficking are based on social, economic, and even cultural factors.
The Iraqi legislator distinguished between the crime of drug use and the crime of manufacturing, selling, or promoting drugs, and transporting drugs, as he specified a specific penalty for each of the previous acts, according to the availability of its elements and aggravating circumstances, and this was clearly stated in the Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law No. 50 of 2017.
