Belarus adds shorter custody and supervision options for drug offences

Belarus gave judges more sentencing choices for drug offences from 3 March 2025. Personal possession gained a short-custody option, and basic supply could receive restriction of liberty for three to five years alongside the existing prison alternative.

The government wanted more individual sentencing

The reform followed a presidential meeting in January 2024 and work by an interdepartmental group. The National Legal Portal described its purpose as making punishment more proportionate to each offence and offender.

The wider criminal-code revision added alternatives to imprisonment across a range of offences. Drug sentencing was one part of that exercise.

Belarus had already cut two supply minimums in 2019. The 2025 reform went further by adding different kinds of punishment for personal offences and basic supply.

Personal possession gained a shorter custodial option

Previously, the personal-drug offence offered restriction of liberty for up to five years or prison for two to five years. The amendment added the sentence called arrest in the code: short custody in strict isolation.

The code defines that sentence as one to three months. A person convicted of acquiring or possessing cannabis for personal use could therefore receive a much shorter period in custody, while the longer sentencing options remained available.

The offence continued to cover manufacture, processing, acquisition, possession, transport and sending drugs without intent to supply. Its wording gave no small-personal-amount exemption.

Basic supply gained restriction of liberty

For basic supply, courts could now choose restriction of liberty for three to five years or prison for three to eight years. The prison alternative retained an optional fine.

Restriction of liberty imposes supervised obligations. It can involve an open correctional institution or supervision without placement in one, depending on the applicable conditions and the court’s decision.

The reform also lowered the organised-group supply minimum from ten years to eight, retaining the twenty-year maximum. The separate six-to-fifteen-year aggravated tier and twelve-to-twenty-five-year supply-causing-death range remained in the updated text.

Prosecutors later reported a change in sentences

In June 2026, prosecutors reported that restriction of liberty represented 48% of drug sentences in the previous year, most commonly for personal offences. Short custody’s share rose from 0.14% to 3.4%. Those figures covered drugs generally.

A separate May 2025 amnesty widened eligibility for some existing convictions. Belarus’s profile now distinguishes these changes from the continuing criminal offences for personal possession, growing and supply.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}