A decree law authorizes private health authorities to establish addiction treatment units

The UAE government issued a federal decree law amending some provisions of the federal decree law regarding combating narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, allowing private health authorities to establish addiction treatment units.

The amendments come within the framework of the state’s ongoing efforts to develop its legislative system, enhance community protection, consolidate the principles of justice and rights preservation, and support the national drug control system in accordance with the highest regulatory, health and security standards.

The decree law also comes in line with the institutional and regulatory developments that the country has witnessed in the medical products sector and drug control, as it stipulates replacing the references contained in the original law to the Ministry of Health and Community Protection and the Minister of Health and Community Protection, with the Emirates Drug Corporation and the Chairman of its Board of Directors, as the Corporation is the authority responsible for regulating medical products in the country.

The decree-law replaced references to the Ministry of Interior with the National Drug Control Agency, embodying the agency’s central role in leading national efforts to combat these crimes.

The new amendments enhance the capabilities of the health sector in the country, as the decree-law authorized federal health authorities and private health facilities to establish specialized units for the treatment and rehabilitation of those addicted to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, provided that the regulations governing the work of these units are issued by a decision of the Council of Ministers. It also authorized local authorities to establish similar units in accordance with their applicable legislation, which contributes to the development of an integrated treatment and rehabilitation system to reduce abuse.

The amendments included tightening the penalties associated with dispensing narcotics or psychotropic substances without a medical prescription that fulfills the conditions, or dispensing percentages that exceed the limits permitted in the approved tables, so that the penalty for the violating pharmacy became imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and a fine of not less than 50 thousand dirhams, and these violations were considered crimes of facilitating the use of narcotic substances.

The amendments also included increasing the penalty for a doctor who writes a prescription for any narcotic substance or psychotropic substance without a license, without medical requirements, or in violation of approved rates, with the penalty being imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and a fine of not less than 50 thousand dirhams, and the act being considered a crime of facilitation, within the framework of a strict policy aimed at controlling medical prescriptions and reducing their misuse.

The amendments included in the decree law also included an update to the provisions regulating the possession and circulation of narcotic substances and psychotropic substances for scientific and medical purposes, by specifying the entities eligible to obtain licenses, including health facilities, chemical analysis laboratories, research facilities, and institutions for manufacturing, storing and distributing medical products, in accordance with precise controls and under the supervision of the competent authorities, ensuring that these materials are used for legitimate purposes only. It also stipulated the continued exception of certain parts of the plants mentioned in the tables attached to the law from the scope of criminalization, in accordance with the controls. Approved.

The amendments included the deportation of foreigners convicted of drug crimes after the completion of the sentences imposed on them, as the court orders the deportation of any foreigner proven guilty, with the exception of two cases in accordance with specific controls: if the convict was a spouse or a first-degree relative of a citizen at the time of committing the crime, or if he was a member of a family residing in the country and the court saw that his deportation would cause serious harm to the stability of the family or cause one of its members to be deprived of the necessary care, and the financial ability of the family to provide him with treatment was proven.

The amendments also included an update to the procedures related to the therapeutic placement of drug abusers, as the decree law permitted not to file a criminal case against the abuser if the educational institution in which he receives his education, after coordination with the child protection specialist and the approval of his family, submits to the therapeutic unit, the Public Prosecution, or the police before issuing an arrest warrant against him, to request his placement in the treatment unit, and for a period of treatment and rehabilitation that does not exceed a full year, in order to enhance the preventive therapeutic approach in combating abuse, and in a way that achieves a balance between protection and treatment.

The amendments stipulated in the decree law also included unifying judicial procedures related to crimes of trafficking, promotion and facilitation, by limiting the jurisdiction of these crimes to the federal courts, and ensuring the enforcement of the orders of the competent Federal Public Prosecution in all emirates of the country, in a way that enhances the unity of procedures and speed of law enforcement.

The decree law confirms the UAE’s commitment to developing the system to combat narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances in accordance with an integrated legislative approach that combines strict deterrence with the provision of treatment and rehabilitation, keeps pace with health, security and regulatory developments, enhances the protection of society and the safety of its members, and consolidates the country’s position as a global model in the rule of law and human protection.

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The most prominent provisions of the decree law

• Emphasis on the deportation of foreigners convicted of drug crimes, with controls for some excepted cases.

• Replace the competent authorities with the law, so that regulating medical products becomes the responsibility of the Emirates Drug Corporation, and drug control is the responsibility of the National Drug Control Agency.

• Allowing the establishment of treatment and rehabilitation units for addicts in private health facilities, in addition to federal and local health authorities.

• Toughening the penalty for pharmacies that dispense narcotic substances without a prescription, up to imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and a fine of not less than 50 thousand dirhams.

• Increase the penalty for doctors who prescribe narcotic substances without a license, or without medical justification, to include imprisonment for a period of not less than five years and a fine of not less than 50 thousand dirhams.

• Unifying judicial procedures related to crimes of drug trafficking, promotion and facilitation, by limiting the jurisdiction to consider them to the federal courts, and ensuring the enforcement of the orders of the Federal Public Prosecution responsible for these crimes in all emirates of the country, in a way that enhances the unity of procedures and speed of law enforcement.

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The most prominent aspects of the amendments to the law

• Reorganizing the mechanism for establishing estates departments, and making them established directly by a decision of the President of the Federal Judicial Council or the head of the local judicial authority, without requiring the opponents to agree.

• Creating specialized chambers to be established upon the request or agreement of the parties to the lawsuit to consider specific civil or commercial disputes.

• Granting judicial departments the authority to seek assistance from local and international experts and discuss with them, and to direct the completion or correction of expert reports.

• Obliging the appellant to include the data of the appealed ruling, its date, the reasons for the appeal, and the requests in the appeal statement, on pain of ruling that the appeal is not accepted.

• Expanding the scope of cassation appeal to include both judgments and decisions issued by the courts of appeal, after it was limited to judgments but not decisions in the previous text, while granting the Public Prosecutor expanded powers to appeal.