Ksentini calls for revision of law on fight against drugs

The chairman of the National Consultative Commission for Human Rights Protection and Promotion (CNCPPDH), Farouk Ksentini, called for the adoption of a new approach to face the proliferation of drugs among young people and which is based on the revision of the law on the fight against drugs that he described as “tragic” for the young consumers.
In a statement to APS, Ksentini insisted on the importance to revise the law n° 04/18 relating to the prevention and suppression of the use or illicit trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances and which includes several gaps.
The enforcement of its clauses relating to young consumers undermines their future, he added.
“Any person who, illicitly, consumes or has for personal consumption drugs or psychotropic substances is sentenced to imprisonment from 2 months to 2 years and punished with a DZD5000 to DZD50 000 fine, or one of the two sentences,” stipulates article 12 of the law.
It is “ inconceivable” to  take hostage of the future of the young people who possess small quantities  of drugs by sentencing them to a term of imprisonment which “far from being the solution in such cases as it leads to the opposite result,” said Ksentini.