Romania’s Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism asked on Monday for the rejection of bill B544/2026, filed in the Senate on 5 October. The paper runs to 20 pages. It is not a floor vote and not a law. Prosecutors say the proposal “cannot be supported, neither in the initiator’s form nor through point amendments”.

The initiative, signed by Victoria Stoiciu, Cristian Ghinea and, at first, Daniel Fenechiu, would move possession, cultivation and production for personal use from crime to a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 lei. AGERPRES notes that Fenechiu has withdrawn his signature. Import and export “for personal consumption” would also become contraventions.

DIICOT’s core point is the missing threshold. The bill does not define “personal use” and sets no quantity. Any volume for which trafficking is not proved could be a fine. Qualification would pass from the prosecutor to the police officer. The directorate calls that a zone of vulnerability to pressure, not a charge against any named officer.

If paid within 15 days, the halved minimum would come, DIICOT calculates, to 500 or 750 lei. A record left final could, through ne bis in idem, block a later trafficking case on the same facts. That is the directorate’s reading of Strasbourg case law, not a ruling handed down on Monday.

DIICOT says treating import as a contravention would breach UN conventions to which Romania is a party. The buyer of a parcel from abroad could claim personal use, while the seller stayed outside Romanian jurisdiction. The directorate still accepts that current sentences for bringing in small amounts are disproportionate and asks for sentencing room, not for taking the act out of criminal law.

PRESShub and AGERPRES stop at the opinion. The Senate has not voted. Anyone writing that Romania decriminalised drugs on Monday is writing past a position paper.

Image: Peterwchen, Senate chamber, Palace of the Parliament, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the chamber, not a vote.

Sources consulted: DIICOT asks for rejection of the drug-use decriminalisation bill - PRESShub; DIICOT sharply criticises decriminalising drug possession - AGERPRES.