Exclusion from criminal liability of possession of narcotics in small doses -Issues of judicial practice

Albania’s law excludes from criminal liability persons in cases of possession for personal use of small doses of narcotic and psychotropic substances. This matter has also been addressed by the Albanian Supreme Court in its unifying criminal decisions. Being aware of this exclusion, persons who possess narcotics and psychotropic substances pay attention to keeping with them only such small doses. This way they try to escape the criminal prosecution, since in most cases they are users of narcotics and psychotropic substances themselves. In this regard, there have often been difficulties and misinterpretations to hold these persons liable for this criminal offense. In this paper, these situations are analyzed from the legal and judicial practice point of view, reaching the relevant conclusions.