Abstract
This paper presents a brief selective review of the core legal instruments applicable to psychoactive substances. It provides an outline of the essential legal instruments which should be familiar to everybody who works with psychoactive substances or people who misuse them or are at (albeit potential) risk of addictive behaviour.
The understanding of these legal instruments should be an integral part of the legal awareness on the part of the police and other personnel authorised to perform relevant checks, apply the legal instruments in practice, and enforce the law. In particular, they should be embraced by education professionals and other practitioners who deliver prevention programmes in schools and educational facilites or work with children in general, physicians, pharmacists, and other health professionals.
Only objective, legally valid, and relevant information can produce a good legal environment and legal awareness involving an emphasis on people's responsibility for their own behaviour. This paper was created as a practical tool to facilitate addictology practitioners' orientation in the legal aspects of the field.
An effort was made to make the content and formulations of the present article as simple as possible. Rather than providing a complex legal description of the status quo, the paper seeks to present the subject matter in as clear, straightforward, and readable a manner as possible.
The article reflects the legal situation as of 1 March 2018.