Georgian Dream has passed legislative amendments that toughen penalties for drug-related offenses. With the changes adopted on Wednesday, the state policy has become harsher not only towards drug dealers but also users. In addition to longer prison sentences and higher fines, refusing to take a drug test will now be punishable, and a system of ‘mandatory treatment’ for users will also be introduced.

As with several other legislative changes, Georgian Dream claimed that ‘liberal’ drug policies were being ‘externally imposed’ on Georgia, adding that the consequences of that policy could be catastrophic for Georgian youth. However, critics pointed out that the state’s approach has never been liberal, and the tightened legislation will do nothing to help drug users.

The amendments introduced harsher penalties for those who consume and possess small quantities of substances.

Fines and administrative detention terms have been increased for the illegal manufacture, acquisition, possession, transportation, or shipment of small quantities of drugs (excluding the cannabis plant, marijuana), or the use of pharmaceutical drugs without a medical prescription. The previous penalty was a ₾500 ($180) fine or up to 15 days in detention; the new law raises this to a fine ranging from ₾500 ($180) to ₾2,000 ($730) or up to 60 days in detention.

In certain cases, criminal prison sentences have been increased: for example, the sentence for the purchase and possession of synthetic psychoactive substances has been raised, as well as for the production, manufacture, transportation, and shipment of particularly large quantities of drugs or new psychoactive substances.

The punishment for selling drugs has also been toughened: for example, while the previous law imposed 10–15 years of imprisonment for selling drugs with amounts above the criminal threshold, the new law raised this to 12–20 years or up to life imprisonment.

Drug testing

Under the legislative amendments, the state also criminalised the refusal to undergo a drug test, which will result in a fine ranging from ₾500–₾2,000 or administrative detention for up to 60 days.

According to the amendments to the Administrative Code, if a person’s external and/or behavioral characteristics provide sufficient grounds to suspect that they are under the influence of a substance (excluding the cannabis plant, marijuana), a police officer is authorised to demand that the individual be taken to the Ministry of Internal Affaris’s Forensic-Criminalistics Department for a clinical and laboratory examination, or to present the test results within no more than 24 hours.

In case of repeated evasion, the person will face criminal liability — specifically, up to one year imprisonment.

Critics have focused on this measure even before the passing of the changes, arguing that the government intended to use forced drug tests as a tool to pressure its opponents.

Guram Imnadze, the director of the Justice and Democracy Programme at the local civil rights group the Social Justice Centre, stated in March that the ruling party was likely planning to reinstate a mechanism that was previously used to mass-transfer individuals for drug testing — a process which put people ‘under threat of police blackmail, intimidation, and the risk of drugs being planted on them’.

Natia Mezvrishvili, a former Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs under Georgian Dream and currently one of the leaders of the opposition For Georgia party, echoed this sentiment.

Mezvrishvili emphasised that ‘drug dealers must be punished with the utmost severity’ without any compromise and the state should shift from a punitive policy against users to a prevention-focused approach. However, according to her, Georgian Dream has no real interest in the victims of drug use.

Mandatory treatment

Under the adopted amendments, the legislation now includes provisions on the mandatory treatment of individuals ‘diagnosed with drug addiction’.

Anyone whom the state  deems to be ‘addicted to drugs’ and who is convicted of a drug-related crime under the Criminal Code may be subjected to mandatory treatment.

According to the changes, treatment can be ordered for a period of up to two years, based on a medical assessment issued by a commission of specialists.

‘Mandatory treatment for a person diagnosed with drug addiction may be ordered either when the individual is fully exempted from serving their sentence or when their sentence is conditionally suspended. If the person is conditionally released before completing their sentence, the mandatory treatment may be continued’, the law read.

Georgian Dream named crime prevention and the person’s recovery as the goals of mandatory treatment. However, critics emphasised that such an approach will not help people who use drugs.

‘The authors of the reform view coercion as a solution when it comes to treatment — a stance that reflects outdated and harmful practices rooted in Soviet-era ideology. This approach contradicts human rights and modern medical ethics’, the Georgian Association of Addictologists (GAA) noted in its statement, adding that ‘according to scientific evidence, effective and sustainable treatment must be based on the patient's consent, trust, and motivation — not on control and repression’.

The association noted that treatment, rehabilitation, and evidence-based prevention services for drug and gambling addictions are underdeveloped and financially inaccessible in Georgia — making it impossible to effectively address drug-related problems.

Critics have repeatedly described Georgia’s drug policy as harsh and ineffective. In particular, they have stated that instead of addressing drug-related issues in a systematic way, including properly studying the black market and informing the public, as well as developing the proper rehabilitation practices, the current policy focuses only on punishing users.

The drug-related amendments are just one of many legislative changes announced or already adopted by Georgian Dream, which the party claims are necessary to fight the ‘influence of external forces’.

In February, Georgian Dream parliamentary leader Mamuka Mdinaradze announced the changes against ‘liberal drug policy’ during the same press briefing where he proposed a media law and a Georgian translation of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). All the bills have already been passed.

In response to Mdinaradze, the GAA stated that ‘in reality, Georgia's drug policy has never been liberal’.

‘The drug policy of Georgia, with Soviet inertia, has traditionally been and remains punitive’, the association added.