ABSTRACT
The author reviews the current focus of the European Union’s policy on drugs, with particular reference to Council Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA of 25 October 2004, which sets down minimum provisions on the constituent elements of criminal acts and penalties in the field of illicit drug trafficking. This review takes into account the international context, the existence of regimes regulating the entire life-cycle of cannabis products, the position of the United Nations, which continues to be based on the drug control conventions of 1961, 1971 and 1988, and the movements in recent years calling for a paradigm shift in drugs policy. It focuses on the significance of the claim that drugs pose a threat to individual and collective interests in Europe, with particular reference to security-based approaches to the issue.
