Abstract
A new Penal Code has been effective in the Czech Republic since 2010, and the Government passed two regulations determining greater-than-small quantities of narcotic or psychotropic substances and plants or mushrooms that contain them in order to provide further guidance on the implementation of the new legislation. The evaluation of these regulations conducted in 2011 revealed no major difficulties in their application on the part of the bodies involved in criminal proceedings.
The subsequent amendments to the regulations were limited to the specification of names and the inclusion of new substances and quantities in the list. As regards the regulation applicable to plants and mushrooms containing drugs, the THC content was to be newly related to the upper sections of the plant rather than the plant as a whole.
Plants containing derivatives of tryptamine and mescaline, i.e. exotic plants and cacti, were deleted from the list. In response to a massive increase in the supply of new synthetic drugs recorded in late 2010, Act No. 167/1998 Coll., on addictive substances, was amended in the spring of 2011; 33 new substances were added to its schedules.
A law on the criminal liability of legal entities and on proceedings against them was adopted in 2011. In addition to individuals (natural persons), an innovation is that corporate entities may also be prosecuted for drug offences involving the manufacturing and selling of drugs according to this legal norm.
A new body of health regulations was adopted as part of the health care reform. A major part of this material became effective in April 2012.