The State Duma Committee has determined under what conditions drugs can be mentioned in films

The State Duma Committee on Health Protection adopted amendments to the second reading of the bill banning drug propaganda. They define the conditions under which the mention of drugs in literature, cinema, TV series, music and other forms of art is permitted. Thus, it will be necessary to indicate responsibility for drug trafficking and warn about harm to health, reports TASS.

The works must mention administrative and criminal liability for the illegal trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as for the illegal cultivation of narcotic plants. The message must also include mention of mental and behavioral disorders and other diseases caused by drug use. Works should not contain information about methods, methods of development, production and use of drugs, places of their acquisition, methods and places of cultivation of drug-containing plants.

Amendments are made to bill government, which was adopted by the State Duma in the first reading in the spring of 2023. It involves a ban on promoting illicit drug trafficking and consumption. In the version of the first reading, the bill proposed to allow, from the beginning of 2024, the distribution of works of science, literature and art only with a simultaneous message that illegal trafficking is subject to criminal liability and that consumption is addictive and life-threatening.

As the author of the amendment, Mikhail Kizeev (United Russia), explained, experts feared that when the document was adopted in its original version, any mention of drugs in films, TV series or literature would entail criminal liability. The original version suggested that it might be prohibited to create such works. The amendments to the second reading were prepared jointly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the legal department of the State Duma and the apparatus of the health protection committee.

Leonid Uvarchev