Over the past year, Romania has tightened legislation against drug use amid of an increase in the consumption of various stimulants. However, the latest change in this direction caused a stormy reaction, writes BTA.
At least one million people in Romania have used drugs at least once in their life, according to statistics cited by the G4Media information site. Nearly 80 percent of the population (78.8 percent) are not satisfied with the actions of the authorities in the fight against drug use, according to a survey by the sociological agency INSKOP, conducted in May.
"Romania is no longer a country of transit, but of drug consumption. In recent years, we somehow calmly thought that only marijuana was consumed in our country, but the data show that a lot of ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine are consumed,” said to “Adeverul” the psychologist Mihai Kopacanu.
„This is a global and European trend and Romania is part of it. This phenomenon is growing in Romania”, confirms anti-narcotics specialist Catalin Tzone. At a conference dedicated to drug addiction, he presented statistics for 2022, according to which more than one million people in Romania used drugs at least once in their lives. According to him, “in the new official report, the figure will certainly jump somewhere to around one and a half million”.
A law was passed last year that provides an effective prison sentence for drunk, drugged or impaired drivers who cause a fatal crash. According to the legislation, drivers who do not have a driver's license or get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol or drugs and cause a fatal accident will no longer be able to receive suspended sentences.
In March this year a law called “May 2” was approved, which provides an effective prison sentence for drug traffickers without the possibility of suspended sentences. The law was named so because of the tragedy in the Black Sea resort “May 2” (County of Constanta) in August 2023, when a 19-year-old driver swept over a group of youths standing on the side of the road, and two of them died. Drugs were found in his car.
In addition, other laws were approved or are in an advanced parliamentary procedure, which provide for an increase in penalties for crimes related to the trade and use of drugs, notes the Romanian section of Free Europe.
The latest change regarding the use of drugs was approved by the government on June 28, but caused a storm of discontent among drivers. Doctors and other experts also criticized the new regulation. Under the new ordinance, drivers who refuse a police alcohol and/or drug test will have their driver's licenses revoked pending the results of a biological analysis, which could take weeks or even months.
By law, drivers must accept to be tested by the police for alcohol and/or drug use, but some of them refuse the tests and insist on laboratory tests of blood and urine.
In these cases, according to the legislation in force until recently, the driving license is withheld until 8:00 a.m. the next day, "but for no less than 12 hours" and only if the biological expert establishes "clinical evidence suggesting recent consumption of alcoholic beverages or psychoactive substances". If the driver shows no visible signs of alcohol and/or drug use, he is declared fit and his driving license is not suspended.
However, drivers have complained about the accuracy of the rapid tests used by the police. In 2023, only 62 percent of positive rapid tests were confirmed by blood samples, a report by the High Council for Forensic Medicine revealed, cited by Free Europe.
In the event of a positive rapid test, the law provides for the immediate establishment of a criminal record and the revocation of the driver's license. If the forensics lab tests confirm the rapid test result, the driver is charged and could go to jail. If the medical examiner refutes the rapid police test, the prosecutor orders the case to be dismissed and the driver gets his driver's license back.
The big inconvenience is the fact that several months can pass between the revocation of the driver's license based on the rapid test and the clarifying report from the forensic medical examination, notes Free Europe.
Driver Ciprian T. asked on the social network Facebook who would compensate him if the rapid test came out positive, the blood - negative, and he meanwhile lost his job while waiting months for the results.
Romanian TV stations have interviewed numerous drivers of motor vehicles, who tell about cases of false positive tests of people who were left in vain without a license for months.
According to the new regulation, the driver's license of drivers who refuse a quick test will be revoked until the results are released from a laboratory of the Institute of Forensic Medicine.
In Romania, however, there are only five regional laboratories of the Institute of Forensic Medicine that can determine the exact amount of drugs in the blood. The time it takes for people to get the results can be several weeks, notes Free Europe.
False positive results and the fact that a whole list of common drugs can disqualify a person from driving are of concern. They come out in a drug test as prohibited substances, Digi 24 TV notes. The advice of the police is not to get behind the wheel if you have taken a pill for a cold, Digi 24 points out.
"The new law ignores old problems that have been reported for several years,” said forensic medicine expert Gabriel Gorun on Digi 24. In his words, “this policy of criminalizing the presence of a substance in a person's body as related to their inability to drive continues.
„This is an absolute fundamental error that has already led and will continue to lead, especially under the new legislative provisions, to catastrophic criminalization for persons with residual presence of a sometimes anonymous substance,", warned the specialist.
p>
Criminologist Vlad Zaha, who specializes in drug-related public policies, told Digi 24 that last year more than 1,000 drivers were falsely accused of positive drug tests and were left without a driver's license.
"Now the problem of fake tests is not solved. These are the same tests, but the only solution available to the drivers was taken away, and the problem got significantly worse,” commented Zaha.
"The presumption of innocence is gone! At least they would have set a reasonable maximum period for receiving the results of the biological samples," commented a Facebook user, quoted by Free Europe.
In order to reduce the waiting time, the regulation proposes to expand the network of centers that can determine the presence of drugs, with accredited laboratories of the Romanian police and accredited state hospitals.
The new ordinance was also criticized by the Supreme Council of Forensic Medicine, which pointed out that there are contradictions between the current criminal and civil procedures and those proposed in the ordinance.
The proposal to expand the network of centers that can determine the presence of drugs would violate the principle of neutrality of the evidence that can be presented in a criminal case, judicial expert Gabriel Gorun also noted.
As far as forensic experts are aware, the police will not have centers with the necessary toxicological accreditations, nor will state hospitals.
Drivers have the opportunity to be tested in private laboratories as well, but in criminal cases only the results of the Institute of Forensic Medicine are considered as evidence.
According to Dr. Marius Cincu, who heads the department of clinical toxicology at "Floriaska" hospital, the new regulation is a good preventive measure.
"This is a very good preventive measure, because after you refuse a test and have to wait a few days for the result to come out, I have a presumption that you are hiding something. A person who refuses a given legal provision cannot be looked at in exactly the same way as a person who complies with it”, commented Dr. Marius Zincu to Free Europe.
According to the civil organization “Declik“ however, the new regulation “ruins“ the drivers. “Declique“ organized a petition urging the authorities to change the ordinance. The petition has already collected nearly 140,000 signatures, Digi 24 informs. The civil organization also organized a protest in front of the government building on Victoria Square on Thursday.