Aim: The purpose of the article is to reveal the relationship between the concepts of combating and countering drug crimes (administrative and criminal aspects). Methods: The methodology of the article on the topic “Theoretical principles of the concepts of combating and countering drug crimes (administrative legal and criminal legal aspects)” is usually based on a combination of general scientific and special legal methods. Since the article is devoted to the delimitation and clarification of legal categories (“combat” and “counteraction”), the key emphasis is placed on logicalphilosophical and normative analysis. Results: Prevention and counteraction to crime are two sides of law enforcement influence, which is why they complement each other in their essence and content and, in this regard, have a single system of subjects and legal principles. After all, high-quality crime prevention significantly facilitates the process of countering it, as well as ensuring the inevitability of punishment for all those involved in committing socially dangerous acts. Conclusion: It is proven that the concept of “countering drug crime” is a modern scientific category, which in terms of content significantly exceeds the term “fight”. If the fight is focused on post-factum response (detection and punishment of already committed acts), then counteraction is a systemic strategy that combines preventive, regulatory, law enforcement and rehabilitation measures. Keywords: Narcotic drugs, Psychotropic substances, Precursors, Legal regulation, Fight, Legal regulation, Administrative disputes, Criminal disputes, Counteraction, Theoretical analysis
Oleksandr et al. (2026) studied this question.