[Abuse of prescribed sleeping, narcotic or psychotropic agents]

Treating a drug addict in a state of lack or of weaning is no easy task, either on a strictly medical or judicial point of view. As far as the only judicial aspect is concerned, sleeping, narcotic or psychotropic drugs cannot be used without taking into account the legal provisions which regulate them: the December 24, 1921 law and the different complements and modifications it has been subjected to since then. According to that law, are considered as offences: the use of substances (described in the December 31, 1993 (royal) decree as sleeping or narcotic drugs, and in the December 2, 1998 decree as psychotropic drugs) likely to create, maintain or increase dependence, no result being required; the existence of excess, defined as antithetic notion of what is considered as normal and in accordance with the rules and the ordinary or permitted measure in the practice of the art of healing; the author's intention does not matter: it is not necessary for the author to have aimed at the effect which has been produced or is likely to be.