Drug Crime in Poland 1985-1996 in the Light of Police and Court Statistics

Abstract

In many countries of Western Europe, and of Northern America in particular, drug crime is a most serious problem both in the quantitative and the qualitative terms. This means that oflences of this type engage a considerable portion of the forces and means put at the disposal of law enforcement and criminal justice in those countries. Against this background, the question arises about the recent situation in this respect in Poland. The problem is that for many years after World War II, drug addiction was a problem of minor importance, also from the viewpoint of the police and courts. It was only in the latter half of the seventies, that a considerable drug subculture emerged in Poland, which resulted from propagation of homemade Polish heroin. And yet there was in Poland no "real'' black drug market or the division into dealers and consumers, as the addicts usually manufactured Polish heroin for themselves. Bigger changes only took place in the nineties, when Poland became a significant manufacturer of amphetamine for Western markets and an important transit country, especially for heroin smugglers from the so-called Balkan route. What remains unclear, instead, is the impact of those phenomena on the internal drug market. The extent of opiates subculture does not seem to have grown considerably, and Polish heroin still plevails, the "real" one being too expensive. What did go up, and significantly at that, is consumption of other drugs, especially amphetamine and marihuana. Yet against the general "moral panic" related to amphetamine, few epidemiology surveys indicate the greatest popularity of marihuana and not amphetamine among the school youth. The analysis discussed in the present paper aims first and foremost at answering the question as to the extent to which the above changes in drug addiction and traffic have been reflected in the functioning of law enforcement and criminal justice in Poland. To this aim, analyzed in the first place have been data on detected drug offences from police statistics, as well as date on convictions for such offences from court statistics. Basically, the analysis concerns the years 1985-1996 when the 1985 Drug Control Act was in force. With respect to the police statistics, analyzed have also been data for 1991-1998, that is the period of operation of the new 1997 Act. The major findings of my analysis can be summarized as follows. First and foremost, it has to be stated that in quantitative terms, the role of drug crime in the daily practice of law enforcement and criminal justice agencies in Poland in 1985-1996 was in fact of minor importance. Thus both detected drug offences shown in police statistics and convictions for such offences shown in court statistics constituted less than 1% of all offences and convictions as a rule. Admittedly, at the end of the discussed period, an upward trend in drug crime could be noticed in the police statistics in particular, and thus in the overall structure of crime; yet its extent is still much smaller compared to most West-European countries. The question remains largely open to what extent the growth in detected drug crime, particularly noticeable starting from 1994, results from an actual growth in the number of offences, as it may well result also from the Polish police forces' growing efficiency in detecting offences of this type. In 1985-1996, there was in Poland a most specific structure of drug crime. Thus two offences prevailed in the structure of both detected offences shown in police statistics and convictions contained in court statistics: illegal cultivation of poppy and illegal manufacture or processing of narcotic drugs. In some years, the two offences together accounted for over 80% of the bulk of drug crime registered by the police, and for even a greater proportion - up to 90% - of all convictions for such offences. Instead, the share in the overall structure of drug crime in Poland of such "classical'' offences as smuggling, trafficking and dealing in drugs was at the minimum level until 1994. It was only after that year that the proportion started to grow: by 1998, the structure was reversed with 65% of all offences detected that year being cases of dealing in drugs. So far, however, this shift is hardly reflected in the structure of convictions for such offences, which remains largely unchanged compared to previous years. This may demonstrate the Polish police forces' much greater efficiency in detecting drug dealers combined with persisting faults in the area of gathering evidence that would make it possible to indict specific persons in such cases. Another problem that can still be hardly called serious in Poland is punitive policy of courts with respect to drug offenders. Quite the contrary: there was a lot to indicate even in the eighties that the policy towards such offenders was even more liberal compared to the treatment received by other offenders. This was demonstrated by the role of fine as a selfstanding penalty, imposed much more often on drug offenders, and also by the more frequent staying of sentences. Of course, this situation resulted chiefly fiom the above-mentioned specific structure of the Polish drug crime. Traditionally prevailing among those guilty of the offence of illegal poppy cultivation were farmers, who whether intentionally ignored or were not aware of the limitations imposed on poppy cultivation by the 1985 Act. Among the illegal manufacturers of drugs, in turn, a considerable proportion were addicts who manufactured the Polish home-made heroin for themselves. Again, one can hardly speak of drug business in such cases. Most of the offenders were not profit-seekers. This means that under the 1985 Drug Control Act, Polish courts most seldom had to do with the "real" and "serious" drug crime - the long-established everyday routine of courts in most of the developed West-European and North-American countries where that crime absorbs a considerable portion of forces, means and energy of the local law enforcement. What is more, transformations of the Polish drug scene - reported by the police and the media - have so far been but slightly reflected in the work of Polish courts and in their penal policy. Again, the question remains open to what extent this situation might change over the next few years.