Tokaev has signed a law imposing stricter penalties for drug production.

The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan has signed a law titled "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Issues of Counteracting the Illegal Circulation of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances, Their Analogues, Precursors, and Strongly Acting Substances," as reported by Akorda on its Telegram channel.

The law aims to implement the directives of the head of state given during the National Kurultai meeting on March 15, 2024, regarding tightening penalties for the production and distribution of drugs, as well as applying more lenient criminal sanctions to drug couriers.

The law has increased criminal liability for drug production, including the manufacturing, processing, and production of drugs by officials. Now, for these offenses, offenders may face imprisonment for a term of 15 to 20 years or even life imprisonment with asset confiscation.

Alongside this, the law has slightly reduced penalties for drug couriers. For committing such an offense for the first time without aggravating circumstances, the law stipulates a prison sentence of 5 to 8 years with asset confiscation (previously 5 to 10 years with asset confiscation).

This reduction in punishment is justified by the fact that the so-called drug couriers, mostly consisting of teenagers and young people, do not directly produce or process the drugs and are often exploited by organizers of illegal drug trafficking for their criminal purposes.

However, repeated offenses will result in severe penalties, including imprisonment for a term of 7 to 12 years with asset confiscation.

Moreover, the law maintains sufficiently strict sanctions for individuals distributing drugs as part of a criminal group, in educational institutions, and for minors, prescribing punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term of 15 to 20 years with asset confiscation.

The law also tightened criminal liability for officials involved in drug distribution. Previously, these crimes carried a penalty of imprisonment for 10 to 15 years with asset confiscation, but now the punishment has been increased to 15 to 20 years with asset confiscation.

Additionally, the law includes other measures aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of countering the illegal circulation of drugs and strongly acting substances.

To this end, criminal liability has been established for the illegal cultivation of prohibited plants containing narcotic substances by a criminal group and in particularly large quantities.

Criminal liability has been introduced for the illegal circulation of precursors and strongly acting substances, as well as for substances, tools, and equipment used in the production of drugs, precursors, toxic, and strongly acting substances.

Responsibility has also been established for violating the rules for handling drug analogues, psychotropic substances, as well as precursors and strongly acting substances.

At the beginning of December, we reported that the senators in a plenary session of the chamber reviewed and approved the law that tightens penalties for certain drug-related crimes in two readings.

Furthermore, it was previously proposed in Kazakhstan to impose life imprisonment for drug production. Such amendments were previously considered by the deputies of the Mazhilis.

It should be noted that on March 15, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, speaking at the National Kurultai meeting, addressed the issue of drug production and use in the country.

At that time, he suggested that drug production be equated with the most serious crimes. This issue was also raised by the president during the meeting of the Ministry of Internal Affairs board in January of this year.

Tokayev demanded to strengthen the fight against drug distribution.

"I have repeatedly given instructions on this issue. However, there are no significant results. The accessibility of synthetic drugs and their rapid spread lead to an increase in drug addiction among young people. It is necessary to widely explain the dangerous consequences of drug addiction. The police must actively combat the production, sale, and distribution of drugs. We need to stop superficial efforts and work solely for the sake of statistics," noted Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at that time.