[4] However, the prevalence of drug addiction remained reportedly low as first claimed by Soviet authorities[5][6] which later (under Mikhail Gorbachev) acknowledged a much larger problem;[7][8] at least to drugs other than alcohol or tobacco;[4][9] however, the rates of addiction increased in post-Soviet states.
[16] This decree was reproduced in Article 224 of the penal codes of all the republics of the USSR, and not only increased the penalties for the offences mentioned above to between ten and fifteen years' imprisonment, but for the first time criminalised possession of drugs without intent to traffic, bringing a penalty of up to three years in prison.
Additional offences of 'seducing another person to narcotic drugs', punishable by up to five years' imprisonment, and the theft of narcotics, punishable by between five and fifteen years' imprisonment, were also created.
Sergei Lebedev, the Chairman of the Association of Independent Advocates in Leningrad at the time, argued that the steady escalation of criminal penalties for drug use was "indicative of the Soviet authorities' resignation to their complete inability to solve drug problems in a constructive and humane way".
[17] Treatment was performed in various different ways depending on the substance the patient was addicted to: a physician would usually administer their drug of choice in small doses for maintenance, which was done to reduce the intensity of the withdrawal symptoms.