MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI) – The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, passed in the third and final reading on Wednesday a bill introducing suspended sentences for drug addicts convicted for the first time.

Suspended sentences would be given to drug addicts convicted for the first time of minor offences, such as use, possession or manufacture of drugs for personal use; illegal cultivation of narcotic plants; illegal distribution or falsification of recipes for narcotic drugs.

Drug addicts convicted of these offences are rarely sentenced to jail, according to an explanatory note to the bill.