News item | 29-03-2023 | 08:00
As of April 1 this year, more than 100 chemical raw materials – so-called precursors – will be banned because they are only used to make hard drugs. This has been decided by Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security and Minister Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport on the advice of experts. With the ban, the ministers aim to protect public health as well as to break through and roll up criminal structures in the production and trade of hard drugs. The ministers will also set up an expert group of experts to keep the list of drug precursors up to date. This enables continuous action to be taken with new emerging raw materials for hard drugs.
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Organized crime tries to make as much money as possible with the production and trade of hard drugs with ruthless violence. Owners of barns and warehouses are put under pressure to establish drug labs, our environment is seriously polluted by the dumping of chemical waste, liquidations take place in the street and facades are blown up with explosives. By banning these more than 100 chemicals, investigative services can act sooner against the criminal structures of this violent industry. The mere possession and transport of the raw materials to make hard drugs will already be punishable. We can also work together internationally with countries where these substances are already banned,” said Minister Yesilgöz-Zegerius.
Prohibiting the chemical raw materials is made possible by the Criminal Law Approach to Subversive Crime Act I, which came into force on 1 January 2022. Since then it has been prohibited to import, export, transport or possess drug precursors. It carries a maximum prison term of 6 years. To arrive at the list of prohibited substances, advice was requested from a group of experts from the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the police, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD), the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI), Customs, the Royal Dutch Association of the Dutch Chemical Industry and the Association of Traders in Chemical Products.
Expert group
Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius and Minister Kuipers have also decided to set up the Expert Group for Precursors with experts from the organizations involved as of 1 April this year. The establishment of the Expert Group allows the list of drug precursors to be updated with new emerging chemicals. Two conditions apply to the designation of the prohibited substances: they can be used for the illegal production of drugs, and there is no known legal application.
Keeping the national list up to date can permanently disrupt the illegal production of hard drugs. Criminals who transport and/or possess the drug precursors can thus be tackled more easily. For this, it still had to be proven that these persons could have known that the raw materials for hard drugs were involved. This is no longer necessary by keeping the national list up to date.
Prohibited Substances:
Government Gazette 2023, 9472 | Overheid.nl > Official Announcements (Official Announcements.nl)
Expert group:
Government Gazette 2023, 9473 | Overheid.nl > Official Announcements (Official Announcements.nl)