Drug Purchase Defense in Georgia

Drug Purchase Defense

Penalty for acquisition?

Up to six years; large amount — five to eight; especially large — eight to twenty or life.

Is there an exception?

Yes — voluntary surrender before the investigation, absent signs of another crime.

Who is the Article 273 subject?

An administratively punished or previously convicted person.

4 min·8 Feb 2026

The Structure of a Drug-Acquisition Charge

The unlawful acquisition or storage of narcotic drugs, their analogues, precursors or new psychoactive substances is in Georgia a charge built on two norms: Article 260 of the Criminal Code — the basic offence with quantity gradations — and Article 273 — a separate composition for acts committed in a small quantity, restricted to administratively punished or previously convicted persons. Together these two norms create the frame in which consumer-level and small-acquirer cases are heard. A boundary should be noted as well: the scheduling categories and automatic minimums known from the United States system do not exist in Georgian law — the quantity thresholds (small, large, especially large) are determined by a government act, while the Code builds only the sanction ladder; decriminalisation debates do not change the current text.