LEGISLATIVE ISSUES FOR IMPORTING NARCOTIC AND PSYCHOTROPIC SUBSTANCES AND THEIR PRECURSORS INTO THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Importation of narcotics and psychotropic substances and their precursors into the Russian Federation (RF) even for official purposes (e.g., medical or legal drug testing) had, until recently, been prohibited. However, the RF Duma recently revised and enacted new federal laws and procedures permitting their importation for legitimate uses, requiring the certification of personnel and facilities as well as imposing strict and, as yet, untested importation guidelines. The RF Ministry of Defense (MOD) drug testing program, under its Personnel Reliability Program (PRP), regularly screens for illicit drug use those individuals with access to sensitive nuclear material. This requires confirmation of these types of drugs through testing using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) reagents and standards now permitted but not currently registered for importation into the RF by the RF Ministry of Health. The reagents and standards to be used for drug abuse testing under the PRP belong to the RF List 1, which is similar to the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, Schedule 1, meaning a category of drugs not considered legitimate for medical use. This paper presents and discusses the processes and procedures required to import substances from List 1 into the RF from the one-time license to permit to an import authorization certificate and the associated Russian ministries and agencies involved. Issues and subsequent resolutions will be described, including the establishment of drug (standards) import quotas.