It is demonstrated that policies, operational, and legal responses against drug abuse vary from country to country. In this context, the current and prospective efforts of the Russian Federation to combat drug abuse and its prevention methods need to be closely scrutinized. This is because the Russian Federation is no longer a member of the Council of Europe, and it is now unclear whether the Russian Federation will fulfilll its obligations concerning drug abuse and, if so how it will fulfill them. Therefore, in this article, firstly, a brief analysis of the main legal regulations on drug abuse and its prevention methods for drug abuse which are currently applied in the Russian Federation will be provided. Then, in light of some official statistical data provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other sources, it will be discussed whether the existence of heavy fines and severe punishments enforced on perpetrators of drug-related crimes in the Russian Federation so far has had any sufficient deterrent effect. In light of such limited reliable data, it will be argued that the severity of punishments (e.g., receiving a custodial sentence of up to 20 years) alone neither affects drug-related crime rates significantly nor has any sufficient deterrent effect.

Keywords: Drug abuse, drug addiction, regulation, the Russian Federation