ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with prevalence estimates of occasional and regular drug users based on surveys and other methods of estimation. Warsaw is the largest city in the country with a population of 1.7 million inhabitants. About one third of the population are of drug-taking age that is between 15-34 years old, including 280 thousand university students. Due to relative isolation and strict border controls in the 1960s and 1970s, Poland developed its own drug consumption pattern. The drug problems became a public issue in the beginning of the 1980s during the legal Solidarity festival. Poland adopted a new law to counteract drug abuse that introduced more severe penal sanctions including sanctions for drug possession, with the exception of a small amount for personal use. The central laboratories of the police HQ and 16 regional laboratories are kept busy analysing drugs on demand from the police, attorneys and other relevant authorities to provide documentation in criminal and other investigations.
