Oleksandr Gogilashvili: Ministry of Internal Affairs initiates changes to legislation in the fight against drug crime
In the near future, it is planned to submit a number of amendments to the laws of Ukraine on drug policy formation to the Verkhovna Rada.
This was stated by the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs during a meeting of the working group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the EU Consultative Mission to Ukraine.
“It is planned to introduce responsibility for advertising drugs, introduce mandatory detention and detention of drug distributors, recognize that people who use drugs, not distribute them, are not criminals, but patients. And also to send drug addicts to compulsory treatment,” said Alexander Gogilashvili.
The Deputy Minister stressed that effective fight against drug crimes requires close cooperation with international partners.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs has intensified interdepartmental cooperation in drug policy issues. Namely, we have set up working groups on combating drug trafficking and are working on the introduction of electronic prescriptions. However, modern drug policy, the fight against drug crime is also an effective interaction with international partners,” he stressed.
Oleksandr Gogilashvili noted that since the second half of 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has created a specialized unit — the Department for ensuring the formation of state policy in the field of combating drug crime. And also continues the process of recertification of specialists of the Department for the fight against drug crime of the National Police.
Separately, the parties discussed the issue of strategic communications.
Director of the Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Artem Shevchenko noted that today there are about 600 employees in the communication system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The largest segment is the National Police. For the communicators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, strategic and crisis communications are an important element of the struggle in the information war. He thanked foreign partners for their support, as well as seminars and trainings on strategic communications issues. Artem Shevchenko stressed the need to strengthen cooperation in these issues.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
