Art. 231 of the Criminal Code. Illegal cultivation of plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances or their precursors

Art. 231 of the Criminal Code is most often found in judicial practice. Crimes that encroach on the health of the population are among the most dangerous. Illegal cultivation of narcotic drugs inevitably leads to the destruction of many lives, which is why the legislator so widely and specifically highlighted this issue in criminal law.

What are narcotic drugs?

Drugs are dangerous substances for human health. This concept has a lot of explanations and examples, but for many it is limited only to the most popular and trivial, such as poppy sleeping pills, cocaine, heroin, hemp, and some people do not even suspect how much this list is expanded.

So, narcotic means is that contains substances brought by the Government of the Russian Federation in the list of dangerous and forbidden. This can be both plants and their parts containing data inadmissible elements. They are of natural origin, for example, mushrooms-psilotsiby, or synthetic, that is, deliberately created by man, say, cocaine. All this, regardless of the consistency, is a drug that is dangerous to health and life.

Elements of composition: object

The qualification of the act provided for in Art. 231 of the Criminal Code, often requires a huge amount of work. It is not easy to determine the composition of the crime, because there are difficulties, especially in the objective side. However, the first element to be considered is the object, that is, the social relations that suffer from the actions of the perpetrators.

In this crime, the object will be health of the population. In some cases, additional public problems related to the life of citizens may be highlighted, if, for example, cultivation has resulted in consequences such as death. Also in the chapter of the Code containing this article, we are talking about the morality of society as a whole. It can also act as an object, but apply to art. 231 of the Criminal Code of Russia is not entirely appropriate.

The objective side

The article in question implies responsibility for the illegal cultivation of plants containing narcotic drugs. But what is it? The objective side, that is, the manifestation of the act in the external environment, in society, in this case, consists in cultivation, namely in sowing and cultivation of certain hazardous substances. This is a mandatory condition for the composition.

It is also important to remember that for qualification the condition of a large size of cultivated plants is important, which is approved and adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation. This point is specific and implies that if a large-scale border is not reached, then the crime in such an act will not manifest itself.

In addition, there are also qualifying signs: a group of people, both organized and by prior agreement, and a particularly large size of cultivation. For example, illegal cultivation of cannabis is very common. This activity has a huge scale, which gives reason to apply to the guilty part of the second article in question, and practice confirms the prevalence of this rule.

Subject of crime

In each crime, a subject can only be a certain person, namely one that has reached the age of sixteen and is recognized as perfectly sane. This is a general rule. There are exceptions, namely the reduction of the age to fourteen years, as well as an increase to eighteen. However, in the case of the act provided for in Art. 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, responsibility in most cases comes from 16 years.

There are often precedents when underage citizens are engaged in cultivation. A vivid example is the cultivation of such a plant as a poppy-dormant poppy. He meets in private homes, and engaged in its sowing mainly teenagers. However, if large scale plantations are not allowed, then, accordingly, there is no need to start a business and bring these persons to justice.

The subjective side

Wine is of great importance for any crime. It expresses the attitude of the offender to the act he is committing. As you know, it can manifest itself in two forms. The crime is committed either intentionally (directly or indirectly - does not matter), or by negligence, frivolity or negligence.

With regard to the act in question, the cultivation of plants that are prohibited by law is always carried out with direct intent. The subject realizes that it is he who grows up, understands the danger of this action and, most importantly, wants the onset of negative consequences that are possible in the end. Carelessness or indirect intent in this part of the crime is, of course, not present.

Responsibility for the act under Article 231 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

Judicial practice demonstrates the prevalence of the application of this article. The last cases in the field of drugs were cases where the perpetrators cultivated psilocybia mushrooms, or precedents of cannabis seeding - all this entails punishment that varies from administrative penalties to imprisonment. The dimensions depend, of course, on the gravity of the crime and the aggravating circumstances.

The strictest and maximum punishment that may be imposed for the act envisaged by the article in question is deprivation of liberty for eight years, which makes the illegal cultivation of plants that contain narcotic substances a serious crime. Also often, together with this measure, the restriction of freedom for a shorter period is also applied, but this question is almost everywhere at the discretion of the court.

It is important to note that to be 231 does not provide absolutely no chance of exemption from criminal liability. It contains a note, but it only records information about what should be understood as a large or, say, particularly large size. Accordingly, even if a person voluntarily stops cultivation, this will not free him from a fair punishment.