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The Legality of Heroin

The legality of heroin these days is pretty open and shut - it isn’t allowed in many, if any places around the world. Surprisingly though, the laws preventing the manufacture, sale and import of heroin have only existed in relatively recent times - the drug had been present and in popular use for well over half a century before the UK government saw fit to introduce measures controlling it, for example.

Throughout the world, heroin is a strictly controlled substance and it is the cause of many arrests in the world each year - in the USA heroin is a Schedule 1 drug and cannot be possessed without prior approval from the DEA. If this is not held sentences for possession usually clock in at around seven to ten years in jail. Sentences for trafficking and dealing are far more serious, with life imprisonment not out of the question - the death penalty, however, is not employed in relation to drugs offenses in the USA, and legislation to punish traffickers by death has been consistently shot down by the Supreme Court.

The UK still allows possession and distribution of heroin in certain medical cases, though only with prior governmental consent and in strictly controlled situations.

These laws fall back to the 1950s when the wheels were first put in motion for the illegalisation of heroin - it was never completely outlawed thanks to medical professionals voicing their protests, and as such it maintains medicinal legality. Possession, usage and trafficking for any non medical reasons, however, carry harsh penalties and long jail time, as well as attendance at rehabilitation clinics for repeat addict offenders.

Penalties in South East Asia - a major supplier of opium and thus heroin - are incredibly harsh, and purely by possessing heroin a person can be sentenced to incredible fines, life imprisonment and even the death penalty. It is an aspect of travel in the region that people are warned about a great deal, but foreigners still see themselves caught trafficking heroin throughout the area - be it on purpose or by accident - and many end up incarcerated for very long periods of time.