Besides the slow increase in illicit drug use, the consumption of designer drugs dramatically increased in Hungary between 2009 and 2011. These psychoactive substances with more or less unpredictable effects are spreading apace especially among the youth. Due to their rapidly changing composition, prohibiting and penalizing them presented serious problems. The Government has implemented new instruments against the distribution of drugs, and the early results have already been achieved.

In the course of the modification of the Health Law, as an Annex of it, a so called List „C” was created, which came into force on 2nd April 2012, and in which those substances with psychoactive effect are enlisted with their generic formulae. In the future the possession and the distribution of all the modified substances can be derived from these generic formulae will classify as enlisted in List „C”, therefore result in applying sanctions. The new psychoactive substances appearing in the Early Warning System can be included in the list within a short period of two or three weeks.

All persons who import or transfer across the country, produce, possess or distribute such enlisted substances commit a crime and can be imprisoned for up to three years. According to the current draft Panel Code those persons who commit these crimes in or in the neighbourhood of schools, cultural or other protected institutions are to be judged more seriously.

From 2nd April on the vast majority of the websites trading with designer drugs has closed down, and the number of the hospitalization cases due to substance use has been decreased by more than 90%.

(Ministry of State for Social, Family and Youth Affairs)