The Criminal Legal Framework for Drug Trafficking in Kosovo: A Comparative Analysis with Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro

The rising number of drug users in Kosovo and worldwide underscores the growing prevalence of narcocriminality in contemporary society. This is a concerning fact, as the increase of such negative phenomena threatens the economy, the security of various countries, and the health and lives of certain groups of citizens, particularly young people and children. The number of narcotics victims is rising daily, with many coming from these vulnerable groups. National legislators in Kosovo and neighboring states, including Albania, North Macedonia, and Montenegro, have addressed and sanctioned this criminal activity through legal frameworks, forming the focus of this study. To have a better picture on the regulation of drug trafficking, done in these Balkan peninsula countries, a professional analysis, comparison and legal interpretation has been done. The author of this paper before and during the comparison, has taken into account the specifics of these Balkan states, which of course have influenced the finding of differences on one side and also similarities in regulating drug trafficking on the other. Their specifics lie in the fact that Kosovo, which emerged as a state from the former Yugoslavia, was under UN administration from 1999 until it declared independence in 2008. As a result, its penal legislation was influenced by the laws of Western European countries during its development. On the other hand, Albania, as a state that during the second half of the last century had suffered from communist dictatorship, of course, in the first decades of this century it has put out of use legislation of communist nature by adopting new pro-European legislation. While North Macedonia and Montenegro, as successor states of the former Yugoslavia, have largely maintained the legal framework of the former state, regulating drug trafficking in a manner similar to previous laws.