How do EU countries and Norway classify controlled drugs and precursors? - Eurad

The UN System

Some 250 substances are listed in the Schedules annexed to the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (New York, 1961, amended 1972), the Convention on Psychotropic Substances (Vienna, 1971) and the Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (introducing control on precursors) (Vienna, 1988). The purpose of this listing is to control and limit the use of these drugs according to a classification of their therapeutic value, risk of abuse and health dangers, and to minimize the diversion of precursor chemicals to illegal drug manufacturers. 

Narcotic drugs are classified and placed under international control by the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, as amended in 1972. The Single Convention limits 'exclusively to medical and scientific purposes the production, manufacture, export, import, distribution of, trade in, use and possession of drugs' (art. 4c).

The annex to the 1961 Convention classifies narcotic drugs in four Schedules. More information is available by clicking here.

The EU system

European Union legislation establishing different classes of substances is limited to the EU Regulations that define classes of precursors, stemming from the EU objectives of free movement of goods. These are the Regulation (EC) No 273/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 February 2004 on drug precursors, which regulates intra-Community trade, and by the Council Regulation (EC) No 111/2005 of 22 December 2004 laying down rules for the monitoring of trade between the Community and third countries in drug precursors.

While European Union legislation does not establish different classes of narcotic or psychotropic substances, the Council Decision 2005/387/JHA of 10 May 2005 on the information exchange, risk-assessment and control of new psychoactive substances, can provoke a Council Decision requiring countries to put a drug under national controls equivalent to those controls for substances listed in the UN Conventions of 1961 and 1971. Risk assessments under the 2005 Council Decision resulted in pan-European controls for BZP and mephedrone. The mechanism is described in detail by the in the Action on new drugs section.

This replaced the Joint Action 97/396/JHA of 16 June 1997 adopted by the Council on the basis of Article K.3 of the Treaty on European Union, concerning the information exchange, risk assessment and the control of new synthetic drugs, which triggered three Council Decisions requiring countries to put a synthetic drug under national controls equivalent to those for substances in UN71 Schedules I and II. Risk assessments under the Joint Action resulted in pan-European controls for 4-MTA, PMMA, 2C-I, 2C-T-2, 2C-T-7 and TMA-2.

National systems in the EU and Norway

Within their domestic legislations, some Member States distinguish between narcotic and psychotropic substances. Others combine the two in a list that is based on the level of medicinal use or potential harm.

Some Member States also classify narcotic and psychotropic substances in order to determine the prosecution procedure or the (range of) punishment for illegal activities involving those substances. Therefore, in some countries the law states that the sanction for possessing a controlled drug will depend on the type of drug in question, while in other countries the law foresees the same punishment for an activity, no matter which substance is involved.

In Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and the UK, the penalty for a drugs offence officially varies according to the nature of the substance involved. Thus the law in those 13 countries instructs or requests the judicial authorities to distinguish between drugs when prosecuting. Of these 13 countries, in Malta the penalty is only varied for a charge of drug trafficking, whereas in Belgium, Czech Republic, Ireland and Luxembourg it is only different for the offence of possession of (a small amount of) cannabis for personal use.

In the remaining 14 EU Member States, Croatia and Norway, the law officially does not recognise differences between drugs, and drugs offences may incur the same penalty regardless of the substances involved. However, there is a discrepancy between the formal legal texts and actual practice; the judicial authorities do consider the nature of the substances (as well as the quantity and other determining factors) when sentencing, either using their discretionary power or by applying circulars or directives.

More information can be accessed here.