The criminality rate regarding the drugs illicit traffic and consumption

• Author: Cristina Octovescu-Frasie
• Position: Ph. D lecturer. 'Nicolae Titulescu' Faculty of Law and Administrative Sciences. University of Craiova
• Pages: 153-159

153

THE CRIMINALITY RATE REGARDING THE DRUGS

ILLICIT TRAFFIC AND CONSUMPTION

Ph. D lecturer Cristina Octovescu-Fr<sie

”Nicolae Titulescu” Faculty of Law and Administrative

Sciences

University of Craiova

otocris@yahoo.com

Abstract:

In this study we analyze the evolution of the drugs consumption and the

rapport between drugs and criminality. After the definition of drugs, the study

presents a general image of the illegal drugs consumption all over the world. In the

last part, we insist on the results of a study made in Romania, in 2007 that is

focused on the rapport between drugs and criminality.

Key words: drugs, crimes, traffic, consumption, law.

1. Conceptual delimitations

Since the Antiquity people had known about the healing or toxic power that

some plants or the isolated products from them had. In the 3rd century B.C.,

Aristotle’s student Teofrast, mentioned in his work the opium that he called „me

conium”, a name that is still used nowadays220.

The Greek doctor Heraclidae, in the 2nd century B.C., was prescribing

opium as a remedy for the bite of the poisonous snakes. The pharmacologist

Pedaniu Dioscoride (1st century A.D.) mentioned about the preparation of the

poppy seeds syrup named „diacodion”221.

The drugs have appeared since ancient times, from the period when the

Dacians and the Romans lived came proofs that certain herbs were smoked for

their aphrodisiac and hallucinogen properties, as for example the Indian hemp.

The Romanian Explicative Dictionary shows that “the drug is a vegetal,

animal or mineral substance used to prepare medicaments or as a narcotic”222.

The specialists from this field define “the drugs” as natural or synthetic

substances used by the consumers for their influence on the mind, the

220 N. Stan and D. Tefas, The Alkaloids, The Medical Publishing House, Bucharest, 1962, p. 5.

221 L. Goodman and A. Gilman, The basis of pharmacology and therapeutics, The Medical

Publishing House, 2nd edition, 1960, p. 199.

222 The Romanian Explicative Dictionary, Bucharest, Academy Publishing House, 1975, p.282.