The chairmen of the supreme court of Georgia Konstantine Kublashvili in his speech addressing to judges all over the country noted that one of the aims of the judicial reform in Georgia is to establish court practice and the part of the practice should be the special guidelines for judges.

Traditional democratic countries in comparison to Georgia have more benefit: this is the well established court practice with some tens years of experience which is published and first of all available in electronic format for judges noted the chairmen of the supreme court. The most interesting is so called guidelines.  

These are the “recommendations” and “judgment guidelines” for judges. The chairmen noted

that the United States has the richest tradition in this way. The guidelines facilitate to establish the practice of the same understanding of the legislative norms and thus create the prompt and effective judgment. On the basis of the existing situation, practice study of General courts of Georgia and international ones on 5 February, 2007 the special commission was established. The commission helped to form guidelines which includes those detailed circumstances when and what kind of punishment the judges should impose addressing this or that article of the legislation.

As a result from 18 March 2006 till 2007 the judges in all levels from all over Georgia participated in the conference where the special recommendations were formed. According to the recommendations the judges will have the same understanding of the legislation that means imposition of the same sentences as it is outlined in the above mentioned guideline. These recommendations or in other words the guidelines must be used also by public prosecutors.

The judges from all the court instances in Georgia will have the same interpretation when addressing drug offences as article 273 of the criminal code. According to the article 273 criminal code of Georgia Illegal preparation purchase, keeping of small quantities of narcotics, its analogy or precursor for personal use or their use without doctor’s prescription, perpetrated after awarding an administrative sentence for such practice shall be punishable by fine or by public useful labour from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and eighty hours in length or by imprisonment for the term not in excess of one year.

For example according to the guidelines after the administrative fine will be imposed within one year for personal consumption of narcotic substances, its analogy or precursor; illegal preparation, purchase, keeping of small quantities or their use without doctor’s prescription, perpetrated two or more times will cause the punishment according to the circumstances of the case:

The circumstances of the case should taken into account                                     Punishment

Without the circumstances of article 273                                  Imprisonment till 6 months or fine no less than 3000 Gel

Cooperated with the preliminary Investigation                       Fine no less than 1000 Gel

Previously convicted (person with                                           Imprisonment till 1 year and

criminal record)                                                                      fine no less than 3000 Gel

Cooperated with the preliminary                                            Imprisonment till 9 months

Investigation but Previously convicted

(person with criminal record)

Note: in the significant circumstances it is possible to increase or decrease sentence for 6 months term within the ambit of article 273 of the criminal law. The fine should not be addressed only to those who are enrolled in the list of socially unprotected people. 

This is an extract from page 188 of the judges’ guideline which shows the very significant increase of fine and the term if imprisonment towards the persons who use drugs. It is worth while to mention that judges should take into account not only the above punishment but also expropriation of property from drug users and recidivism (perpetrated deliberate crime by the person previously convicted for a deliberate crime).

This guideline which is formed by judges with the help of the commission established with the order #3 of the chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia would form more reasonable recommendations if they all were informed about the negative consequences of the harsh legislative norms particularly addressing drug use. The chairman of the Supreme Court of Georgia should care also that the information about harm reduction and other relevant documents attached to the guidelines in order to decrease the chance for future harsh recommendations.