The crime of encouraging the use of drugs and stimulant substances in Turkish criminal law

Drugs and stimulants are phenomena that have been fought in the historical process due to their addictive nature and the negative personal and social consequences of addiction. In both international conventions and national regulations, measures and penalties for the manufacture, trade and use of narcotic drugs are envisaged within the scope of this struggle. When the factors that lead to substance use and addiction are examined, it is revealed that the media and social perception are important criteria. With the crime of publicly encouraging the use of drugs or stimulants and making encouraging broadcasts, it is aimed to change the social perception about drugs and to prevent people from having positive feelings about drug use and ultimately to protect public health. Within the scope of the study, the scopes of the concepts of drugs and stimulants were evaluated in terms of doctrine and legislation, and the factors causing addiction were examined in order to emphasize the importance of this crime and social perception. Afterwards, the elements of the crime were evaluated and the criticisms brought in the doctrine, the regulations of similar nature in various countries and Turkish law, the evaluations within the scope of crime policy in general and the examinations in terms of practice were included. The concepts of incent, publicity and broadcasting, which are the material elements of this crime; criticisms of the moral element and evaluations of the weight of the sanction are presented. Considering that the crime that is the subject of the study come fore frequently in the context of the widespread use of social media, it turns out that the balance that needs to be established in terms of freedom of expression, press and art is critical.