INTRODUCTION: Since 1989, Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic have had a reputation for a relatively liberal drug policy. Drug use or possession was not in itself penalized, and a drug-substitution program called Drop-In is effectively functioning despite occasional protests. However, during several visits of American officials, especially of the FBI, who met with Czech Interior Minister Ruml, it was stated that the American side expressed its "concern" with the lax approach of the Czechs to the "war on drugs". On August 23, 1994, a major right-wing daily, Cesky denik, brought a large article called "Drugs: Should use itself be penalized?" with the subtitle "The Interministerial Drug Commission Prepares a Change in the Law". The article quoted a member of the commission, a certain Tomas Haas, who was identified as its temporary head, as saying that "all use and possession of drugs should be penalized". It was also disclosed that Interior Minister Jan Ruml was appointed as Chairman of the Commiss

ion and will start participating in its work from September onward.

Paolo Pietrosanti of the Transnational Radical Party reacted with a press release which sparked off a lively debate on the matter. The press release was published in its entirety in Cesky denik on September 9 and very substantial quotations from it were published in Zemedelske noviny already on August 27 under the title Legalization of Drugs - yes or no? Tomas Haas responded to the Radicals criticism repeatedly; his first response was quoted in the same article in which Pietrosanti's views were presented, the second, a half-page article, in Cesky denik on September 9 alongside Pietrosanti's original press release. Cesky denik devoted, in all, 4 pages to the issue on Sept. 9-11, giving also a lot of space to Jiri Vacek, a former top advisor to Interior Minister Ruml on drug use. Vacek also challenged the views of Haas quite fundamentally, though he did not explicitly support full legalization.

What follows is a full translation of Pietrosanti's text plus a summary of statements by Haas, Vacek and Jiri Presl, Director of Drop-In.

STATEMENT OF PAOLO PIETROSANTI, MEMBER OF THE SECRETARITAT OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY as published by Cesky denik on Sept. 9, 1994, page 10.

The proposal of Tomas Haas, which would penalize the mere use of drugs, leads in the direction of maginalization of thousands of people, of an increase in the number of the hopelessly addicted and to a strengthening of the influence of the drug mafia.

Long decades of the war on drugs have proved clearly at least one thing: the higher the degree of repression of consumers and their criminalization, the more people become addicted and the income goes into the pockets of the drug mafia.

Admittedly, everyone has a right to say his opinion on solution of the drug problem. However, if a head of an interministerial commission suggests repression for the mere use of drugs, it is our duty to remark that such a solution leads to increased power of the drug traders and forces thoses, who need above all medical aid, into the arms of the underworld. Criminalization makes them dependent of this underworld and prevents them from getting social and medical help. The gangsters gain absolute power over such people and the social and medical network loses its chance to help them. Increasing the risk also increases the price of the drug, of course, and the despair of the consumer, who are then more easily pushed to become dealers themselves.

It was not the drug itself which made trade with narcotics into the greatest business in history, but its criminalization. Also, the consumer is rarely killed by the drug as such, but by the fact that he is at the mercy of the mafia who may murder him or sell him a killing, uncontrolled drug. Prohibition in itself also never saved anyone from addiction. Moreover, the rising prices and gains motivate drug dealers to use increasingly aggressive methods.

The decision what is and what is not a "drug" is quite arbitrary. If addiction should be a criterion, then also alcohol and nicotine would have to be considered as drugs - it is well known that they actually kill more people than other drugs and still they can be sold and even advertised for.

In many countries the policy of "harm reduction" is being introduced recently - a series of steps towards controlled legalization. The Czech Republic seems to be headed for a development in the opposite direction. While the current law does not punish the use and possession of drugs as such, Mr. Haas wants to change this approach and resort to a strategy which has failed miserably everywhere.

Knowing that among the maitres a penser of Prime Minister Klaus is Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winner and ardent antiprohibitionist, I would have expected a similar development on part of the Czech Government - and not the suicidal way of repression. Legalization can not be achieved, of course, in one country. Therefore the Transnational Radical Party, who have more than 600 MPs in 8O parliaments, started - together with the International Antiprohibitionist League - a world-wide campaign for the change of the current international treaties on drugs, on which most national legislatives are based.

Whoever suggests criminalization of drug consumers, which has repeatedly and tragically failed everywhere where it was tried, is consciously or unconsiously supporting a policy which puts more and more people into the hands of mafias and criminal organizations, which are already today capable of controlling state institutions in more than one country of the world.

Paolo Pietrosanti

The article in Zemedelske noviny quotes Pietrosanti's press release almost in its entirety and brings also the first reaction of Tomas Haas to it. Haas says: "The reaction of the Transnational Radical Party surprised me - I was only expressing my private view...If someone is afraid that every 17-year-old who tries a drug, would be jailed, there is no such danger. We have to differentiate." He proceeds to say, however, that "our law does not make possession of drugs illegal, which can not be said about other highly developed countries. We can not be an island. We have to follow the trend of other countries or we will have drug tourism in our country." Thus he in fact admits that he is advocating penalization of drug use. As for the situation in the United States, where drug use is high, Haas blames it on the "liberalization of public opinion" and claims that "if people refuse drugs a priori, no mafia will have a chance." The article in general, however, gives a clearly favorable view of the Pietrosanti's posi

tion.

In Cesky denik Jiri Vacek, former adviser to Minister Ruml, criticizes that the Commission's recommendation not to consider any minimum dose of drug as legally tolerable. Vacek defends the category of "amount of drug for personal use" which should be clearly defined by law, according to him. Making all doses illegal and speaking about "tolerant attitude in cases of low doses" is absurd, says Vacek - a law is a law and must be observed. "We would be crazy to pay policemen for tolerating violations of the law," says Vacek who speaks very forcefully against criminalization of drug users. If drug use as such was penalized, argues Vacek, then social workers and medical people in contact with drug addicts would have a legal duty to report on such a "crime" if they encountered it - and all talk about banning everything and deciding arbitrarily who will be punished or not is nonsense.

Dr. Presl from the Drop-In Center in Prague says (also in Cesky denik): "Repression solves nothing. America chose a war on drugs, global repression. The result is that after 15 years of war on drugs you can buy drugs on every corner in every large American city. In our country, fortunately, drug-connected mortality amounts to 0.2 per 100 000 inhabitants. Were the war on drugs is being waged the situation is vastly different. Vacek and Presl both refuse repression - they differ, however, in their view whether the state should organize a network of centers for treatment and prevention: Vacek thinks it should, while Presl believes it can not be organized centrally.

Cesky denik also lists the names and addresses of all centers in the Czech Republic which work with drug addicts.