Drugs for personal use in Albania

Albanian law criminalizes the sale or posession of drugs, every kind of drug. More specifically Albanian Criminal Code states “Sale, offer for sale, giving or receiving of any form, distribution, trading, transport, sending, delivering, and keeping, besides cases when it is for personal use and in small doses, of narcotic and psychotropic substances and seeds of narcotic plants, in conflict with the law, is sentenced to imprisonment of from five to ten years”. Not only the sale is criminalized but even offering drugs for free is a criminal offence. Albanian law does not distinguish between drugs, but if you happen to end up in court, it will most probably differentiate between cannabis or heroine. Now, Albanian law provides that when the drug caught on a person is for personal use and in small doses (these two conditions should be cumulatively fulfilled) this would not constitute a criminal offence. If these two conditions stand, will be proved in court by a toxicology expert. This means that if you are caught in Albania with drugs, you would be arrested and brought to court, where you can argue that the drug you are caught with is for personal use and in small doses. If you are successful in proving this then you will be found not guilty. But let’s explain these two conditions, personal use means that the drug a person is caught with is to be used by him or herself and not with the aim to be given through any kind of activity to another person. Usually in Albania to prove that the drug is for personal use the person will try to prove that he/she is a user of that drug but being a user is a not a pre-condition, even persons who are not users can claim that they have a drug for personal use. But what is a small dose of drug? The Albanian legislation has not established what a small dose of drug is but the court precedent has maintained that a small dose is the amount of drug which can be consumed in one day and not harm the person. This will be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the person, the drug and the amount of it. From the legal precedent we can say that if someone is caught with more than one small dose (more than one package) which even in total can constitute an amount which would not cause harm to a person in one day most probably you will be found guilty. But if you are caught with only one small dose most probably that will not be considered a criminal offence. In one case someone caught with one dose of 0,7 grams of cocaine was not considered guilty.