The Correct Qualification of Crimes in the Field of Illicit Drug Trafficking as a Criterion for the Effectiveness of Punishment

The article raises the issues of criminal law assessment of a person's actions in equipping drug caches for the purpose of its sale as a single ongoing crime or as a set of crimes. The authors note that the correct qualification of such actions is important and creates the prerequisites for the imposition of a fair punishment, which would be perceived as such by both the perpetrator himself and society as a whole. When analyzing the judicial practice of bringing to criminal responsibility for the illegal sale of narcotic drugs, its discrepancy is revealed: sometimes such actions to equip caches with bookmarks of narcotic drugs are qualified as a single ongoing crime, and sometimes each episode is considered independently, that is, a set of crimes arises. Next, the authors study the arguments found in the texts of judicial acts in favor of qualifying such acts in one way or another. In conclusion, the authors indicate that if the perpetrator leaves bookmarks of narcotic drugs obtained from the same batch, intending to sell the entire batch of narcotic drugs, then in this case such circumstances indicate the commission of identical acts with a slight time gap, in a similar way and in relation to the same object of criminal encroachment and the subject, which entails the need to qualify such actions as a single ongoing crime. At the same time, it is separately noted that only in this case the punishment imposed will be considered as fair and deserved.